International Chopin Piano Competition

Intermission during first-round concert, October 2005

Polish President Bronisław Komorowski at the Laureates' Concert, October 2010

The International Chopin Piano Competition (Polish: Międzynarodowy Konkurs Pianistyczny im. Fryderyka Chopina), often referred to as the Chopin Competition, is a piano competition held in Warsaw, Poland to honour the name of Frédéric Chopin. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious music competitions in the world. It was initiated in 1927 and has been held every five years since 1955. It is one of few competitions devoted entirely to the works of a single composer.^[1]

The first competition was founded by the Polish pianist and pedagogue Jerzy Żurawlew. Subsequent editions were organised in 1932 and 1937; the post-war fourth and fifth editions were held in 1949 and 1955. In 1957 the competition became one of the founding members of the World Federation of International Music Competitions in Geneva.

Traditional special awards include the Polish Radio prize for the best Mazurka performance (since 1927), the Fryderyk Chopin Society in Warsaw prize for the best Polonaise (since 1960), and the National Philharmonic prize for the best performance of a Piano Concerto (since 1980).

Jury

For a more comprehensive list, see List of jurors of the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition.

Past members of the jury have included such names as Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Stefan Askenase, Wilhelm Backhaus, Paul Badura-Skoda, Nadia Boulanger, Dang Thai Son, Bella Davidovich, Philippe Entremont, Fou Ts'ong, Nelson Freire, Vera Gornostayeva, Arthur Hedley, Mieczysław Horszowski, Vladimir Krainev, Marguerite Long, Lazare Lévy, Nikita Magaloff, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Heinrich Neuhaus, Vlado Perlemuter, Maurice Ravel, Arthur Rubinstein, Emil von Sauer, Magda Tagliaferro, and many distinguished Polish pianists, teachers, conductors, as well as composers (for instance Karol Szymanowski and Witold Lutosławski).

Chairman

Jan Ekier (2010)

Traditionally the chairman of the board is a Polish musician:

• Witold Maliszewski, composer (1927)
• Adam Wieniawski, composer (1932 and 1937)
• Zbigniew Drzewiecki, pianist and teacher (1949, 1955, 1960, 1965)
• Kazimierz Sikorski, composer and theoretician (1970 and 1975)
• Kazimierz Kord, conductor (1980)
• Jan Ekier, pianist and teacher (1985, 1990, 1995)
• Andrzej Jasiński, pianist and teacher (2000, 2005, 2010)

Arthur Rubinstein and Jan Ekier have also acted as honorary chairman.

The Ivo Pogorelić case

Martha Argerich

The tenth edition, in 1980, entered the history of music competitions as a result of heated arguments among members of the jury. The controversy arising from a difference in opinion about a contestant, 22-year-old Yugoslavian pianist Ivo Pogorelić, and his openly provocative style of interpretation and behaviour on the stage, developed into a worldwide scandal. The jury divided into two groups: those who found his playing unacceptable, and those who were enthusiastic or at least approving of his performance, most notably Martha Argerich, Paul Badura-Skoda and Nikita Magaloff. Finally, when Pogorelić did not reach the final fourth stage, Martha Argerich ostentatiously left the jury, announcing that she felt ashamed for having taken part in the judging process. This followed another scandal a few days earlier, when another member of the jury, Louis Kentner, had resigned because of his disapproval of the assessment. However, while Kentner never returned to Warsaw, Martha Argerich has been a juror in subsequent editions of the Chopin Competition up to 2010. After the affair Ivo Pogorelić gained great popularity in Poland and abroad.

Prize winners

See also Category: Prize-winners of the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition.

Table showing: top 6 prize winners since 1927

Year	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
1927	Lev Oborin	Stanisław Szpinalski	Róża Etkin	Grigory Ginzburg
1932	Alexandre Uninsky (c)	Imré Ungár (c)	Bolesław Kon	Abram Lufer	Lajos Kentner	Leonid Sagalov
1937	Yakov Zak	Rosa Tamarkina	Witold Małcużyński	Lance Dossor	Agi Jambor	Edith Axenfeld
1942	No competition due to occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany in WWII
1949	Bella Davidovich Halina Czerny-Stefańska (ex-a.)	Barbara Hesse-Bukowska	Waldemar Maciszewski	Georgy Muravlov	Władysław Kędra	Ryszard Bakst
1955	Adam Harasiewicz	Vladimir Ashkenazy	Fou Ts'ong	Bernard Ringeissen	Naum Shtarkman	Dmitry Paperno
1960	Maurizio Pollini	Irina Zaritskaya	Tania Achot-Harutunian	Li Min-Chan	Zinaida Ignatyeva	Valeri Kastelsky
1965	Martha Argerich	Arthur Moreira Lima	Marta Sosińska	Hiroko Nakamura	Edward Auer	Elzbieta Glabówna
1970	Garrick Ohlsson	Mitsuko Uchida	Piotr Paleczny	Eugene Indjic	Natalya Gavrilova	Janusz Olejniczak
1975	Krystian Zimerman	Dina Joffe	Tatyana Fedkina	Pavel Gililov	Dean Kramer	Diana Kacso
1980	Dang Thai Son	Tatyana Shebanova	Arutyun Papazyan	Not awarded	Akiko Ebi Ewa Poblocka (ex-a.)	Eric Berchot Irina Pietrova (ex-a.) -->
1985	Stanislav Bunin	Marc Laforet	Krzysztof Jabłoński	Michie Koyama	Jean-Marc Luisada	Tatyana Pikayzen
1990	Not awarded	Kevin Kenner	Yukio Yokoyama	Corrado Rollero Margarita Shevchenko (ex-a.)	Anna Malikova Takako Takahashi (ex-a.)	Caroline Sageman
1995	Not Awarded	Philippe Giusiano Alexei Sultanov (ex-a.)	Gabriela Montero	Rem Urasin	Rika Miyatani	Magdalena Lisak
2000	Yundi Li	Ingrid Fliter	Alexander Kobrin	Sa Chen	Alberto Nosè	Mika Sato
2005	Rafał Blechacz	Not awarded	Dong-Hyek Lim Dong-Min Lim (ex-a.)	Shohei Sekimoto Takashi Yamamoto	Not awarded	Ka Ling Colleen Lee
2010	Yulianna Avdeeva	Lukas Geniušas Ingolf Wunder (ex-a.)	Daniil Trifonov	Evgeni Bozhanov	François Dumont	not awarded

See also

Piano portal

• List of classical music competitions
• XIII International Chopin Piano Competition

References

1. ^ Culture.pl

http://konkurs.chopin.pl/en/edition/xvi/verdicts/1978_wyniki_konkursu

Bibliography

• Jerzy Waldorff, Wielka gra: rzecz o konkursach chopinowskich ("Great playing: about Chopin Competitions"), Warsaw, Iskry, 1985, ISBN 83-207-0719-6.
• Janusz Ekiert, The endless search for Chopin: the history of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, MUZA SA, 2000. ISBN 978-83-7495-812-7.

External links

• Official International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition website
• History of the Competition in the Polish Culture Portal
• Official International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition for Amateurs website
• Piano Competitions & Music Competitions at Bakitone International