First prize

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Tomasz Ritter, a graduate of the concert exam program in Prof. Hubert Rutkowski’s piano class, won first prize at the 2024 Musica Antiqua Fortepiano Competition in Bruges.

The Musica Antiqua Competition is organized as part of the Musica Antiqua Festival in Bruges (MA Festival Bruges). It is one of the most prestigious competitions of its kind in the field of early music. Past winners of the competition include outstanding musicians such as Christophe Rousset, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Dmitry Sinkovsky, Jean Rondeau, and Justin Taylor. The winner of the competition receives a cash prize, an invitation to perform in a series of concerts—including at the next edition of the Musica Antiqua Festival—and the opportunity to record an album for the Ricercar label. This year’s edition of the competition was open to musicians specializing in pianoforte performance. Tomasz Ritter was among the five finalists and, in addition to first prize, also won the Outhere Award, sponsored by one of the competition’s partners, the record label Outhere Music.

Biography
“An intrepid seeker of adventure”—Tomasz Ritter earned this nickname in *International Piano* magazine following his concert in Berlin in the spring of 2019.
Ever since he sat down at a piano from Mozart’s time in Prague ten years ago, his musical interests—in addition to the modern piano—have expanded to include early music and period instruments: historical pianos, clavichords, and harpsichords.
In September 2018, he won the First International Chopin Competition on Historical Instruments in Warsaw. “His interpretation is extraordinary, unique,” wrote one of the reviewers after the competition.
He is also a prize winner at many other competitions, including the 9th International Competition for Young Pianists “Artur Rubinstein in Memoriam” in Bydgoszcz and the 8th International Piano Competition for Young Musicians in Enschede.
Tomasz Ritter is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory (studying under Alexei Lubimov, Mikhail Voskresensky, Maria Uspenskaya, and Alexei Shevchenko) and the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, where he studied with Prof. Hubert Rutkowski (concert exam). He gained further experience through collaboration with Petr Šefl as well as in master classes with Johannes Sonnleitner, Urszula Bartkiewicz (harpsichord), Malcolm Bilson, Andreas Steier, and Tobias Koch (piano).
Tomasz performs at renowned piano festivals, including “Chopin and His Europe” in Warsaw, the Chopin Festival in Duszniki Zdrój, and the Nohant Festival Chopin in France.