Concours Musical International De Montréal Announces 19th Piano Competition

From April 26 - May 14, the Concours Musical International de Montréal (CMIM) will hold its triennial piano edition in a virtual format after a one-year postponement due to COVID-19. A preliminary jury has selected from among 229 candidates twenty-six semifinalists aged 21-30 who represent 11 different countries including Canada, China, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Korea, the United States and Uzbekistan to compete for over $230,000 in prizes and awards. In addition to a grand prize of $30,000 from the city of Montréal and the $50,000 Joseph Rouleau Career Development Grant offered by the Azrieli Foundation, the first prize winner will also be offered a concert tour in three North American cities (sponsored by Sarah Beauchamp), an artist residency at Canada's Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, a concerto performance with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in an upcoming season and a solo album recording on the Steinway & Sons label with a launch event at Steinway Hall in New York City.

All stages of the competition will be available for free, on-demand listening on CMIM's website, https://www.concoursmontreal.ca/en/. Along with the panel of nine international judges overseen by Zarin Mehta including Arnaldo Cohen (United States), Martin Engstroem (Sweden), Till Fellner (Austria), Mari Kodama (Japan), Hélène Mercier (Canada), Costa Pilavachi (Canada), Charles Richard-Hamelin (Canada), Rena Shereshevskaya (Russia) and Susan Wadsworth (United States), the public is invited to vote for the recipient of the $5,000 ICI Musique People's Choice Award.

To maintain integrity and consistency among recordings, CMIM has secured fifteen concert halls around the world in which the artists will perform on a Steinway & Sons instrument. Recording crews will abide by the same set of rules regarding microphone and camera placement, and each recital will be recorded in one take.

The twenty-six 45-minute semifinal recitals will be webcast for the public over nine sessions (three recitals per session) premiering April 26-29 at 10am and 2pm ET and April 30 at 10am ET and streamed on-demand thereafter. Among their other selections, performers must choose at least one work by J.S. Bach and three of Twenty-four Preludes by Juno Award-winning Canadian composer John Burge.
The twenty-six semifinalists competing are:

• Kevin Ahfat (Canada)
• Alice Burla (Canada)
• Yoichiro Chiba (Japan)
• Francesco Granata (Italy)
• Ji-Hyang Gwak (South Korea)
• Anna Han (United States)
• Andrei Iliushkin (Russia)
• Su Yeon Kim (South Korea)
• Krysztof Ksiazek (Poland)
• Ying Li (China)
• Dimitri Malignan (France)
• Ken Nakasako (Japan)
• Yeontaek Oh (South Korea)
• Chaeyoung Park (South Korea)

• Kyoungsun Park (South Korea)
• Tamila Salimdjanova (Uzbekistan)
• Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner (United States)
• Cristian Sandrin (Romania)
• Dmitry Sin (Russia)
• Marcel Tadokoro (France)
• Stephanie Tang (United States)
• Alexey Trushechkin (Russia)
• Zhu Wang (China)
• Jiacheng Xiong (China)
• Suah Ye (South Korea)
• Joon Yoon (South Korea)

More information on the 2021 competitors and program information can be found HERE.

Eight finalists will be announced on Friday, April 30 at 2pm ET. Finalists chosen will return to perform a 60-minute recital streamed over four sessions premiering May 10-13 at 10am ET. The announcement of the final results and closing ceremony will occur on Friday, May 14th at 10am ET.

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