Nearly half of the 160 finalists represent East Asia: there are 26 representatives from China, 25 from Japan and 24 from South Korea. The fourth largest group, comprising of 21 artists, are the Polish representatives. Other participants represent Russia and the U.S. (11 musicians each), France (6 representatives), Great Britain and Italy (5 artists each), Canada and Ukraine (4 musicians each), the Czech Republic and Taiwan (2 pianists each). Austria, Belarus, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Latvia, Mongolia, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden and Uzbekistan will each be represented by a single musician.
The 21 Polish finalists are: Tymoteusz Bies, Rafał Błaszczyk, Łukasz Piotr Byrdy, Aleksandra Hortensja Dąbek, Michał Dziewior, Katarzyna Gołofit, Adam Mikołaj Goździewski, Julia Kociuban, Mischa Kozłowski, Łukasz Mikołajczyk, Paweł Motyczyński, Karolina Nadolska, Szymon Nehring, Grzegorz Niemczuk, Piotr Nowak, Piotr Ryszard Pawlak, Zuzanna Pietrzak, Adam Piórkowski, Michał Szymanowski, Julia Maria Śliwa and Marcin Wieczorek.
The finalists were selected based on video recordings submitted by the candidates, which were then evaluated by a Qualification Commission comprising of pianists and pedagogues who specialise in Chopin’s music. The chair of the commission, Professor Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, was a semi-finalist of the 9th Chopin Competition awarded with a distinction, regarded as the second most interesting participant of the competition – second after Krystian Zimerman. Professor Popowa-Zydroń has taught many notable pianists, including Rafał Blechacz and Krzysztof Herdzin. The other commission members are Ewa Bukojemska, Lech Dudzik, Andrzej Jasiński, Bronisława Kawalla, Stanisław Leszczyński, Marta Sosińska and Wojciech Światała.
Among the 160 participants are five musicians who owe their way to the finals to their previous successes in piano competitions. These pianists are Dinara Klinton from Ukraine, a laureate of the 2013 I.J. Paderewski competition; Nozomi Nakagiri, laureate of the 2012 competition in Hamamatsu; and the winners of the Polish Chopin Piano Competition: Andrzej Wierciński, Rafał Krupiński and Krzysztof Książek.
As in any competition, apart from the objective abilities of participants, other capabilities are relevant, like psychological endurance, physical condition, the ability to focus and reach the heights of artistic abilities at a certain place in a certain moment. This almost combat readiness certainly denotes a performer’s professionalism, but it is not the only psychological model of a virtuoso. From what I observe (…) I can tell that competition successes are merely one of the many paths leading artists to the notable concert halls of the world, therefore potential failure should be approached rationally and with distance.
– said Artur Szklener, director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute.
The public eliminations will take place on 13th-24th April 2015 in the Chamber Music Hall of the Warsaw Philharmonic. The pianists will be judged by an international jury whose members include: Ludmil Angelov, Akiko Ebi, Adam Harasiewicz, Yves Henry, Andrzej Jasiński, Ivan Klansky, Anna Malikova, Alberto Nosè, Piotr Paleczny, Ewa Pobłocka, Marta Sosińska, Wojciech Świtała and Dina Yoffe. The final list of the Chopin Competition participants will be announced by 25th April 2015.
Source: press materials, edit. FL, transl. Agata Dudek 02/03/2015.