With her unique interpretations, pianist Ragna Schirmer is held in high esteem, even beyond Germany’s borders. Her artful way of nuancing, her attention to detail, and her passion for rediscovering well known and lesser known compositions and linking them to modern life – all these attributes distinguish Ragna Schirmer. She won the International Bach Competition Leipzig in 1992 and 1998 and made a remarkable album debut with Bach’s Goldberg Variations.In 2009, she obtained her second ECHO Klassik award for her recording of Georg Friedrich Handel’s piano suites, which was highly praised by the critics, and in 2012, she was honoured with the Handel Prize of the city of Halle. 15 first prizes and special awards at national and international competitionsare visible proof of the pianist’s impressive career. Besides recordings of Bach, Handel, and two highly praised Haydn albums, her discography also includes compositions by Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Corigliano, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schnittke, and Schmidt. She presented a recording of Franz Liszts "Années de Pèlerinage" together with Italian renaissance madrigals at Berlin Classics in the Year of Liszt 2011. With her sensitivity for sound and her flexibility, the pianist also increasingly uses historical keyboard instruments (fortepianos belonging to different epochs). In her latest project, Handel’s organ concertos sound just as brilliant in adaptations for piano and chamber orchestra as on the pianoforte with baroque ensemble or on the Hammond organ with jazz ensemble. The three-CD box set by Edel also features the Concertino pour Piano by Guillaume Connesson. Ragna Schirmer‘s drama turgic and programmatic skills, coupled with her lively presentations, make concerts an extraordinary experience. It is not surprising that the pianist is in theatre productions as well, written specifically for her. Examples are "Blendwerk" with Christian Brückner and" Konzert für eine Taube Seele" with the Puppet Theatre of Halle.Ragna Schirmer is also active as a teacher. After being appointed professor at the College of Music and Performing Arts in Mannheim already at the age of 28, she has taught talented young pianists at the Musical Department of the “Latina August Hermann Francke“ in the city of Halle an der Saale since 2009.Ragna Schirmer gives concerts in the biggest concert halls in Europe, China, New Zealand as well as at renowned festivals such as the “Heidelberger Frühling“ (artist in residence 2010), the Beethovenfest Bonn, the “MDR-Musiksommer” organised by the Central German Broadcasting MDR), the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt, and the Salzburg Festival. She has played together with Zubin Mehta, Sir Roger Norrington, Kurt Masur, Sir Neville Marriner, and Herbert Blomstedt, to name only few, and has performed with orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the German Symphonic Orchestra Berlin, the Orchestre National de France,the GewandhausOrchestra Leipzig, and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.