What Categories Does OPUS KLASSIK Award?

Updated

OPUS KLASSIK presents awards in more than 30 categories, covering artists, recordings, and concerts. According to the prize's own description, it honors outstanding artists, recordings ("Tonträger"), and concerts each year. The categories are not limited to performers: they also include recognition for lifetime achievement and commercial success, such as Bestseller of the Year.

What the categories cover

The award's scope falls into three broad areas named on the site:

  • Artists — individual performers and creators
  • Recordings — albums and other released works
  • Concerts — live performance projects

Beyond these, the prize also recognizes specific achievements that sit outside a simple performer/recording/concert split, as the examples below show.

Examples of specific categories

The site names several categories directly:

Category What it recognizes Example from the site
Lifetime Achievement An artist's body of work over a career Martha Argerich received the OPUS KLASSIK for her lifetime achievement
Bestseller of the Year A commercially successful album Lang Lang won for his album Piano Book 2

These two illustrate how far the categories range — from a career-spanning honor to a sales-based award — within the same prize.

How to see the full category list and winners

The site provides overviews of all awarded artists and projects, both for the current cycle and for previous years ("Frühere Auszeichungen"). If you want the complete, up-to-date category list rather than the examples above, the awarded-artists overviews are the place to check, since the site states the prize spans over 30 categories but does not enumerate all of them in the material available here.

Related pages on the site

  • News — announcements of winners and program details
  • Einreichungen (submissions) — submission dates and process
  • Shortlist 2026 — shortlisted entries
  • Aktuelle Auszeichnungen — current awards
  • Frühere Auszeichungen — past awards
  • OPUS KLASSIK Wochenende — the gala weekend in Berlin

For the 2026 weekend, the OPUS KLASSIK Concert takes place 10 October 2026 at 19:30 at Fotografiska Berlin, and the Gala on 11 October 2026 at 15:45 at Konzerthaus Berlin. The site notes the concert is already sold out, while gala tickets were still available at the time of publication.