The International Art Song Competition Stuttgart, which will be held for the 15th time in Stuttgart in 2026, is one of the largest and most renowned competitions for Lied duos in the world.
The competition will be streamed live online and offers all young singers and pianists born after 31 December 1992 a platform to explore this particularly beautiful and challenging art form and present it to a large international audience.
In addition to Franz Schubert and Hugo Wolf as a constant ‘basis’, the repertoire of the 2026 competition will also focus on American composers as well as on five European female composers of the late 19th/early 20th century. Moreover, to mark the 100th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke's death this year, new Rilke settings have been commissioned from three contemporary international composers.

The 1st round is open to members of the Internationale Hugo-Wolf-Akademie. Admission is free. Registration is requested: info@ihwa.de.

The International Art Song Competition Stutttgart, which will be held for the 15th time in Stuttgart in 2026, is one of the largest and most renowned competitions for Lied duos in the world.
The competition will be streamed live online and offers all young singers and pianists born after 31 December 1992 a platform to explore this particularly beautiful and challenging art form and present it to a large international audience.
In addition to Franz Schubert and Hugo Wolf as a constant ‘basis’, the repertoire of the 2026 competition will also focus on American composers as well as on five European female composers of the late 19th/early 20th century. Moreover, to mark the 100th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke's death this year, new Rilke settings have been commissioned from three contemporary international composers.

The 1st round is open to members of the Internationale Hugo-Wolf-Akademie. Admission is free. Registration is requested: info@ihwa.de.

The International Art Song Competition Stutttgart, which will be held for the 15th time in Stuttgart in 2026, is one of the largest and most renowned competitions for Lied duos in the world.
The competition will be streamed live online and offers all young singers and pianists born after 31 December 1992 a platform to explore this particularly beautiful and challenging art form and present it to a large international audience.
In addition to Franz Schubert and Hugo Wolf as a constant ‘basis’, the repertoire of the 2026 competition will also focus on American composers as well as on five European female composers of the late 19th/early 20th century. Moreover, to mark the 100th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke's death this year, new Rilke settings have been commissioned from three contemporary international composers.

The 2nd round is open to the public. Admission is free. Registration is requested: info@ihwa.de.

Lecture, concert, round table & encounters

1. SWAP'RA (Supporting Women and Parents in Opera)

Natasha Loges, lecture  

2. Rilke in Music – Concert and round table

Clara Barbier Serrano (soprano), Jonas Müller (baritone), Marcelo Amaral (piano), Elisenda Fábregas, Outi Tarkiainen and others

The International Art Song Competition Stutttgart, which will be held for the 15th time in Stuttgart in 2026, is one of the largest and most renowned competitions for Lied duos in the world.
The competition will be streamed live online and offers all young singers and pianists born after 31 December 1992 a platform to explore this particularly beautiful and challenging art form and present it to a large international audience.
In addition to Franz Schubert and Hugo Wolf as a constant ‘basis’, the repertoire of the 2026 competition will also focus on American composers as well as on five European female composers of the late 19th/early 20th century. Moreover, to mark the 100th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke's death this year, new Rilke settings have been commissioned from three contemporary international composers.

The final is open to the public. Admission is free. Registration is requested: info@ihwa.de.

In the popular concert of the awardees, the stage belongs to the prizewinners of the International Art Song Competition 2026:

Here, the winning duos, who are able to convince the jury of their skills, present their personal favourite programme and receive their certificates from jury chair Brigitte Fassbaender. Celebrate with us the best liedduos of this year's competition!

Ticket information:
Students and persons with a severe disability card are eligible for reduced-price tickets. Please contact us directly at info@ihwa.de or +49 711 221177. The card must be presented at the entrance.

Songs by Muriel Herbert, Roger Quilter, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Richard Wagner and others

“So ist die Lieb!...” (Such is love!), wrote Eduard Mörike almost exactly 200 years ago, shrugging his shoulders in resignation at the force of nature and the many guises with which love captivates us humans and never lets us go. A song duo well known in Stuttgart and popular far beyond the region’s borders is dedicated to this phenomenon – love – in all its contradictory, passionate, beautiful and, at times, painful facets: the soprano Sarah Wegener and the pianist Götz Payer. In the concert hall of the HMDK Stuttgart, where Sarah Wegener studied and where Götz Payer has been a professor of art song since 2022, the duo explores the full spectrum of human emotions – from the tentative first glimmer of love to the blazing fire of all-consuming desire.

Ticket information:
Students and persons with a severe disability card are eligible for reduced-price tickets. Please contact us directly at info@ihwa.de or +49 711 221177.
The card must be presented at the entrance.