The Excelsior Piano Academy is a two-week summer festival in Sondershausen, Germany, focusing on piano performance and pedagogy for participants of all levels.

The Academy will take place from Sunday evening, June 21, through Friday night, July 2, in the picturesque town of Sondershausen, approximately an hour and a half west of Leipzig. We will stay at the Thüringer Landesmusikakademie Sondershausen, which provides dorm-style accommodations as well as fully equipped practice and performance facilities

The academy is designed to equally benefit two groups:
1) Current piano teachers who want to sharpen their teaching and playing skills and wish to benefit from professional mentorship

2) High-school or college-age students wishing to enjoy a high-level piano workshop from within a Christian worldview

The festival welcomes undergraduate and high school pianists 16 and older, as well as graduate pianists and community piano teachers. More experienced participants may participate in the festival as performer-teachers to refine their teaching with guidance and feedback from academy faculty in pedagogy workshops. Younger participants are welcome to participate as performers only while still being involved in all academy events.

Sondershausen is approximately 90 minutes west of the regional Leipzig-Halle Airport (LEJ), or three hours from the larger Berlin Brandenburg (BER) or Frankfurt am Main (FRA) airports. We recommend that you book flights 4-5 months in advance for best pricing, using a general search engine such as Kayak or Google Flights to explore options, then booking directly with the airline for best results. We highly recommend that you purchase travel insurance along with your airline tickets to cover cases of illness, lost luggage, etc.

Train and bus services (https://int.bahn.de/en/) run regularly from these airports to the Academy’s location in Sondershausen. Participants are responsible for their own travel to and from the Academy. This allows you to arrive earlier or stay later, should you wish to visit friends or see other sights in Europe.

Participants will enjoy daily lessons, master classes, devotionals, seminars, and pedagogy workshops. Additionally, they will attend concerts, perform, and visit cultural sites in and around Sondershausen, such as Liszt’s house in Weimar, and the Thomaskirche in Leipzig where Bach worked.

The base fee is $950, which covers the program cost plus all of your meals and housing at the Thuringer Landesmusikakademie (the facility that houses Excelsior). Payments can be made securely through our website using Stripe when registration opens and is due December 1, 2026. Late registration is still possible until February 1, with higher fee.

If you wish to join Academy faculty and other students for a day in Leipzig before the Academy begins, please plan to arrive in Leipzig before noon on Saturday, June 20. An additional payment of $200 is required for this excursion. Pending availability, activities may include attending a local concert, enjoying a walking tour of the city, and attending Sunday morning services at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig.

The registration fee does NOT cover your transportation to and from the academy, so we recommend that you shop early for cheap flights and whatever other discounts you may find for travel. The registration fee also does not cover any meals you purchase outside of the cafeteria, such as when out exploring other places away from Sondershausen. Occasionally, participants may also use the train system for days in which we visit other towns like Weimar or Leipzig. Train tickets are relatively affordable and more information can be found here: Cheap Train Tickets | Timetables for Germany & Europe – Deutsche Bahn.

In addition to the usual items like clothing, toiletries, and medication, bring any sheet music you plan to use, and make sure to include performance attire. Bedding is provided in the dorms.