Sontraud Speidel

Biography

Sontraud Speidel joined the class of exiled Russian Irene Slavin at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe at the age of eleven. After graduating from high school, she studied with Irene Slavin and Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen in Karlsruhe, Branka Musulin in Frankfurt, Stefan Askenase in Brussels and Géza Anda in Lucerne. She has won prizes at national and international competitions (1st Prize at the Schools of the Federal Republic of Germany at the age of 16, 1st Prize at the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Washington D.C. / USA, Jackson Prize of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for New Music, etc.). Concerts, radio and CD recordings, television appearances and masterclasses have taken her to Europe, the USA, Canada, Israel, Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Brazil and Morocco.

Speidel is a professor of piano at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. She has been a guest professor at universities and conservatoires in Europe, the USA, Canada, Israel and Asia and is a regular judge at national and international competitions.

Several contemporary composers have dedicated works to her and entrusted her with premieres. She was the soloist at the world premiere of David Winkler’s "Concerto for Piano and 13 Instruments" in Tanglewood / USA and in 1979, at the invitation of German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, she gave a piano recital at the Palais Schaumburg Bonn. In Thessaloniki she played the Greek premiere of Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Concerto and in Karlsruhe the world premiere of Robert Schumann’s "Variations on a Nocturne by Chopin", newly discovered by Dr Joachim Draheim. In Solingen, she was the soloist at the world premiere of the piano concerto "Kristallspiele", dedicated to her by Violeta Dinescu.

Speidel heads the Piano Podium Karlsruhe for the promotion of young musical talent and is co-founder and artistic director of the Musikforum Hohenwettersbach concert series. The Elisabeth Speidel Fund, which she initiated, supports talented musicians. She has been awarded the Silver Medal of Honour for Services to the State of Vienna, the Golden Josef Dichler Medal and the Federal Cross of Merit. In 2011, the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe awarded her the first-ever Eugen Werner Velte Prize. The Echo Klassik prize winner was honoured with the City of Karlsruhe’s Medal of Honour in 2024 and with the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg in 2025. She is a Steinway Artist, an honorary member of the Werner Trenkner Society Solingen, the Baden-Württemberg Tonkünstlerverband and Inner Wheel Nordschwarzwald.