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Chopin Competition gets record number of applicants

PR dla Zagranicy
John Beauchamp 17.12.2014 15:05
As many as 452 pianists from 45 countries have submitted their applications to the organisers of the 17th Chopin International Piano Competition which is to be held in Warsaw in October 2015.

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A list of 160 pianists who will qualify to a pre-competition elimination round will be announced on 9 March. It will be held in Warsaw in the second half of April. At the end of that month a final list of participants will be announced.

Addressing a press conference in Warsaw, Grzegorz Michalski of the organising committee of the competition, said that the interest in the event has surpassed the limits of the imagination of its founders before World War Two.

"Looking into the future, I am full of worries. We’ll have to arrive at some kind of solution because making such a drastic pre-selection is a tricky thing," he said.

Pianists from Asia are by far the most numerous group, with 88 applications from Japan, 77 from China and Taiwan, and 47 from South Korea. Poland (56), Russia (35) and the United States (34) follow on with also high numbers of entrants.

The competition has generated a relatively small interest in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Germany.

The international jury will be chaired by Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń from Poland and will include such household names as Martha Argerich, Dang Thai Son, Philippe Entremont, Nelson Goerner, Adam Harasiewicz, Garrick Ohlsson, Janusz Olejniczak, Piotr Paleczny, Ewa Pobłocka and Yundi Li.

Founded in 1927, the Chopin Competition in Warsaw is one of the oldest and most prestigious events of its kind. (mk/jb)

tags: Chopin
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