Joyce DiDonato, Matthias Goerne, Daniel Hope, Kent Nagano, Maurizio Pollini, Fazıl Say, Christian Tetzlaff, the Vienna Piano Trio, Thomas Fritzsch, Sebastian Knauer, Linus Roth and next-generation artist Lucas Debargue are only a few of the winners of this year’s ECHO KLASSIK awards. The Deutsche Phono-Akademie, which acts as the cultural arm of Germany’s Federal Music Industry Association (Bundesverband Musikindustrie, BVMI), also announced today that tenor Jonas Kaufmann, whose album “Dolce Vita” topped the charts in terms of sales, will be honoured in the category “Bestseller of the Year 2017”. This year’s ECHO KLASSIK comprises a total of 54 awards in 22 categories. For a list of all prize winners, please consult the bottom of this press release or visit www.echoklassik.de.

The ECHO KLASSIK trophies will be handed out on Sunday, 29 October 2017 during a gala event in the Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall in Hamburg. The German public TV channel ZDF will broadcast the ceremony that evening starting at 10 pm. Once again this year, popular television presenter Thomas Gottschalk will host the ECHO KLASSIK, marking the fourth time overall he acts as master of ceremonies for the event. The names of those award winners who will perform live that evening will be announced shortly.

Tickets for the ceremony will go on sale next week on Thursday, 3rd August 2017, at 6 pm on <link http: www.eventim.de external-link-new-window external link in new>www.eventim.de or via the eventim ticket hotline at +49 (0)1806-570070.

“Classical music forms an essential part of our heritage and represents one of the fundamental foundations of our culture”, notes BVMI Managing Director Florian Drücke. “All of the artists receiving an ECHO KLASSIK this year have made outstanding contributions to this heritage in the 2016/17 music year. Their performances have brought audiences closer to numerous works of traditional classical music, but also to so-called New Classics. Whether its brilliant solo artists, collaborating ensembles, global superstars or exciting young newcomers – each of these musicians has helped to foster the extraordinary diversity of classical music and ensured that it continues to reach and inspire people of all ages and social backgrounds on all possible distribution channels. Indeed, distribution is of extreme importance to the future of classical music, especially in our increasingly digital world, and this also makes it a key priority for the ECHO KLASSIK. I’m already looking forward to a wonderful award ceremony and all the amazing guests and artists who will perform in the new and perhaps most spectacular concert hall in the world, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.”

Here is an overview of all winners of the ECHO KLASSIK 2017 (in alphabetical order; for an overview by category, please visit www.echoklassik.de):