Goldene Note by Leona König: The 2025 Award Winners

Four young classical music talents honored with the prestigious award – Final show tonight on ORF 2 and as a replay on 3sat. Now in its ninth year since 2017, the classical music advancement prize “Goldene Note” has once again been awarded in 2025.

Initiated by Leona König, Chairwoman of the International Music Foundation for Highly Gifted Children (IMF), the award honors extraordinary young talent and supports them on their artistic journey. 

Leona-König, Founder and chairwoman of Goldene Note awards, and International Music Foundation for Highly Gifted Children, hosts Goldene Note 2025 TV gala show, wearing purple couture gown by Vivienna Lorikeet with flower petals.

The grand finale of Goldene Note 2025 is presented in a pre-recorded TV show airing this evening, Friday, June 6, at 9:15 p.m. on ORF 2 and ORF ON, hosted by Leona König and Norbert Oberhauser.
Nine finalists – six girls and three boys between the ages of nine and eighteen, selected through a prior audition – performed before a distinguished jury consisting of soprano Ildikó Raimondi, conductor and clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer, and violinist, composer, conductor, and actor Aleksey Igudesman.

For the first time, the decision on the award winners was made jointly with the five-member professional jury from the semifinals: Nareh Arghamanyan, Arno Steinwider, Ralf Heiber, Kristina Šuklar, and Dorothee Freiberger.
Four of the nine finalists received awards in three competition categories—strings, winds, keyboard and plucked instruments—as well as the audience award, determined through online voting.

Award Winners from Vienna, Klagenfurt and Palma de Mallorca

Three girls and one boy emerged as the proud winners of “Goldene Note 2025”:

• Alicia Bleuse, age 12, from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, won in the winds category for her interpretation of Fantaisie brillante, arranged by François Borne on themes from Bizet’s opera Carmen.
  In her winner’s performance, she was joined on stage by juror Aleksey Igudesman, performing his own Strauss arrangement “A Little Blue Danube Waltz.”
• In the keyboard and plucked instruments category, Aryana Devine, age 10, from Vienna, impressed with her interpretation of Marcel Grandjany’s “Aria in Classic Style.”
  She performed her winning piece alongside juror Andreas Ottensamer, presenting Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s “Venetian Gondola Song.”
• The award in the strings category went to Dylan Russell, age 13, also from Vienna, for his compelling performance of Tchaikovsky’s Pezzo Capriccioso, Op. 62.
  In his winner’s performance, he accompanied juror Ildikó Raimondi in the aria “Tanzen möcht’ ich, jauchzen möcht’ ich” from Emmerich Kálmán’s operetta Die Csárdásfürstin.
• The 2025 audience award was won by Lois Pfeifer, age 18, from Klagenfurt, who captivated the jury and viewers with the third movement of Henryk Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in the final.