Ih-Ruhn Katharina Jung

Ih-Ruhn Katharina Jung, born in 2013 in Heidelberg, began playing the piano at the age of three. Since 2021, she has been studying piano with Prof. Sontraud Speidel and has been enrolled in the Pre-College program at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe since 2024. In 2023, she made her debut as a soloist with the Waldstadt Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Norbert Krupp. In 2024, further performances followed with the same orchestra as well as with the Karlsruhe Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Susanne Reiner. In 2025, she again performed as a soloist with the Karlsruhe Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Matthias Böhringer. She has received numerous first prizes at national and international competitions, including “Jugend musiziert,” the competition of the Tonkünstlerverband Baden-Württemberg, EUPLAYY Munich, the Grotrian-Steinweg Piano Competition, the International Karl Adler Youth Music Competition, and the Andreas Kunle Piano Competition 2023 of PIANO-PODIUM, where she was awarded the highest sponsorship level as well as a special prize for the best interpretation of a work by Andreas Kunle. At the Anno Schreier Piano Competition 2025 of PIANO-PODIUM, she again received the highest sponsorship level along with two special prizes—for the best interpretation of a work by Anno Schreier and for her outstanding pianistic achievement. She has also received multiple awards as a cellist, including first prizes at “Jugend musiziert” at both regional and state levels. As a soloist, she has performed at venues such as Haydn’s birthplace near Vienna, the Steingraeber Haus in Bayreuth, Schloss Frohnburg in Salzburg, Schloss Köthen, KIT, as well as in Baden-Baden and Gaggenau, and repeatedly at Schloss Karlsruhe and Schloss Neckarhausen. She has also participated in benefit concerts of the Inner Wheel Club Nordschwarzwald and the charity concert “Piano Sounds for Organ Sounds” at the Kleine Kirche Karlsruhe. Since 2023, Ih-Ruhn Katharina Jung has been regularly engaged as a pianist in the projects of Dr. Joachim Draheim, performing there annually. In chamber music, she performs in string duos as well as in the piano duo “Blumenduo” with Luise Bold, which won first prize at the competition of the Tonkünstlerverband Baden-Württemberg and first prize at the Danubia Talents International Music Competition in 2025. For her outstanding pianistic achievements, she received the Gerold Joachim Award in 2022 and the Hugo Neff Memorial Prize in 2023 from the Förderkreis Musikforum Hohenwettersbach e.V. In 2024, she was awarded a scholarship by PIANO-PODIUM Karlsruhe for a musical excursion to Köthen, and in 2025, she received another scholarship for a music excursion to Salzburg.