Liszt Ferenc International Piano Competition orchestral finals A Zeneakadémia saját szervezésű programja

Philharmonia Hungary is organizing the Ferenc Liszt International Piano Competition on the occasion of the 205th anniversary of the birth and the 130th anniversary of the death of Ferenc Liszt. A three-member editorial panel – chaired by Zoltán Kocsis, together with Kálmán Dráfi and János Mácsai – were responsible for compiling the competition programme. György Kurtág has accepted the position of honorary chair of the competition jury; executive chair is Kun Woo Paik (South Korea), and the other jury members are pianists Michel Béroff, Péter Frankl, Leslie Howard, Cyprien Katsaris, Kálmán Dráfi and Károly Mocsári, conductor János Kovács, and music historian János Mácsai. The competition comprises four rounds. In the selection round the jury decide, based on audio recordings submitted along with the application form, who will perform in front of the audience of the Liszt Academy. The qualifiers are held on 3–5 September, and the semi-finals (with a maximum of 12 competitors) on 6–7 September in the Sir Georg Solti Chamber Hall; contestants in these two rounds play for 30 minutes and 50 minutes, respectively (programme material: Transcendent Etudes, Years of Pilgrimage cycle, selected opera paraphrases and freely chosen Liszt works). The jury then selects two pieces from the programme material for the final (Sonata in B minor, Liszt piano concertos) to be performed by a maximum of six finalists. First prize is €15,000, second prize €12,000, and third €9,000, with the audience prize worth an additional €6,000. Pianists from anywhere in the world born after 1 January 1984 may apply; as we went to press the organizers had already received entries from several dozen young pianists from eleven countries, including several promising Hungarian artists.