The Paganini competition was for me a big challenge, as I felt that the atmosphere was rather tense between the competitors. Staying in the same hotel, with everybody practising Paganini's Capricci, night and day (and some competitors even having a sort of nervous break-down in the middle of the night..) ... it was rather difficult! I guess I was very happy when everything was over and even more surprised that I had won! Funny enough, I cannot really say that - on the short term - this prize changed a lot in my concert life, as I was already leading an active concert life and unfortunately - out of the extremely long concert list included in the prize - I actually did play only two recitals up to now! I was also very surprised that the international press did not react at all on this event, especially the German press ... after all, I was the first German prize winner in the history of the Paganini competition!