The winner of the Paderewski Competition is only 16 years old and studies at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory. In the finals, he performed Piano Concerto no. 2 in C minor, op. 18, by Siergiej Rachmaninov. The Korean, like all the finalists, also gave a concert with Ignacy Jan Paderewski Pomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra in Bydgoszcz conducted by Tadeusz Strugała.
Two equal distinctions went to Elżbieta Bilicka (Poland) and Dina Iwanowa (Russia).
Kuszlik and Bilicka are students at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz in the class of Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń. Andrejewa is a graduate of Moscow Conservatory and is currently studying at Hochschule fuer Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. Iwanowa is still a student of Moscow Conservatory.
The head of the jury, Piotr Paleczny, congratulated all the participants and thanked all of the judges. Beside Paleczny, the performances of the pianists were evaluated by Dmitri Alexeev (Russia/UK), Francisco J. Cruz Plaza (Spain), Ewa Pobłocka (Poland), Matti Raekallio (Finland), Soo Jung Shin (Korea), Jerzy Sulikowski (Poland), Tamás Ungár (Hungary/USA), and Arie Vardi (Israel).
A prize of €30,000 was given to the winner, €15,000 to the runner-up and €7,000 for the third-placed participant, as well as two awards of €2,500. Special prizes were also awarded and among the winners were Polish finalists.
Kuszlik received three awards – two for the best performance of Paderewski’s pieces and for the best performance of Fryderyk Chopin’s compositions. Bilicka received two awards – for the best performance of Paderewski’s compositions in the second stage of the competition and for the best performance of a concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the semi-finals.
The Paderewski Competition was only open to pianists born between 1982 and 2000. It consists of two stages followed by semi-finals and finals. Competing for the prize were 47 pianists from 17 countries, including seven Poles. Four Polish pianists got through to the second stage, and three to the semi-finals, of which two advanced to the finals.
A concert by the winner will take place on Sunday in the Pomeranian Philharmonic and will be repeated in the chamber hall of Warsaw Philharmonic on Monday. The first edition of the Paderewski Competition took place in 1961 and was won by Jerzy Maksymiuk, in those days an unknown pianist and now one of the most important Polish conductors.
The following editions of the competition took place in 1986 and 1994. It become an international competition in 1998 and since then it has taken place every three years.
The Paderewski Music Association in Bydgoszcz and the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz are the organisers of the competition.
Competition's website is: http://konkurspaderewskiego.pl/en/
Sorces: PAP, rau/sp/ written by BS, translated by br