The international jury led by Prof. Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń auditioned 152 candidates from all over the world (overall 82 hours of Fryderyk Chopin’s music, including 5 hours of Étude Op. 25, No. 11, in A minor). Each pianist had to present a half-hour-long performance composed of works described in the competition's rules: etudes, nocturnes, mazurkas, ballades, scherzos, optionally Fantasia in F minor, Op. 49 or Barcarole in F sharp major, Op. 60.
The biggest groups of artists to make it to the competition’s finale are the representatives of China and Poland, with 15 musicians each. Other finalists are from Japan (12 pianists), Korea (9), Russia (7), the USA (5), Canada, Great Britain and Italy (3 each), Belarus, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Indonesia, Latvia, Romania, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Hungary (1 representative each).
It seems that the October competition will be very interesting, because the preliminary auditions have already revealed that there are many talented pianists among the participants, wonderful interpreters of Chopin’s music. Pianists from the Far East are delightful, their interpretations of Chopin are very deep.
– said Prof. Katarzyna Popowa- Zydroń.
The other 7 finalists, who made it to the competition without participating in the preliminary round, are the winners of two top prizes for selected piano competitions: Dinara Klinton from Ukraine, Nozomi Nakagiri from Japan, Rachel Naomi Kudo and Eric Lu from the U.S., and Andrzej Wierciński, Rafał Krupiński and Krzysztof Książek from Poland.
The finalists will be assessed 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, Dina Yoffe and Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń. The competition will commence on 1 October 2015 with a concert by Martha Argerich, winner of the 7th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in 1965, and will last until 20 October 2015.
List of Polish pianists who have qualified for the 17th International Chopin Competition:
- Tymoteusz Bies
- Rafał Błaszczyk
- Łukasz Piotr Byrdy
- Katarzyna Gołofit
- Adam Mikołaj Goździewski
- Łukasz Krupiński
- Krzysztof Książek
- Łukasz Mikołajczyk
- Paweł Motyczyński
- Szymon Nehring
- Piotr Nowak
- Piotr Ryszard Pawlak
- Zuzanna Pietrzak
- Michał Szymanowski
- Andrzej Wierciński
Source: press materials, edit. Filip Lech, transl. Agata Dudek, 27/04/15.