AAF-catalogue-2017

Junior Pianists
More and more organisers pay attention to musicians of (very) young age. Also several of
the established competitions that have been major events for pianists aged up to 30 or 32
for many years, created separate competitions for the youth.
It is interesting to see the history and the developments:
Salt Lake City (usa) "Bachauer"
Weimar (frg) "Liszt"
Orléans (f)
Minneapolis (usa) "e-Competition"
New Orleans (usa)
Eppan (it) Piano Academy
Hilton Head (usa)
Seregno (it) "Pozzoli"
Cantù (it) (Y: Barlassina)
Fort Worth (usa) "Cliburn"
Cleveland (usa)
Glasgow (sct)
Düsseldorf (frg) "Anton Rubinstein"
Lleida (esp) "R. Viñes"
Artists competition
(ages up to 30 or 32)
started in:
1976
1994
1994
2002
1989
2009
1996
1959
1991
1962
1975
1990
2013
1995
Junior competition
(ages up to 18)
since:
1987
2005
2005
2008
2009-2011*
2011
2011
2012
2013*
2015
2015
2016
2017
2017
* a few competitions stopped having a separate category for junior pianists: New Orleans (2011),
Manchester "Mottram" (2012), Barlassina (2015).
In 2015, the organisers of the famous Van Cliburn Competition in Fort Worth (Texas,
USA) and the organisers of the Cleveland Int’l Piano Competition also launched an
international competition for Junior Pianists. In Lleida (Spain), the Ricard Viñes
Competition will have a special edition for Piano Kids and Youth in June/July 2017.
The second international Mozart competition for young musicians in Zhuhai (China), in
collaboration with the Mozarteum in Salzburg, will be in September 2017.
Naturally, there are many competitions that have always specifically focused on offering
the younger pianists an international platform, such as the competition in Ettlingen (frg)
since 1988, the competition in New York since 2002, Oberlin (since 1995), Århus (dan)
since 2011, Enschede (hol) since 2001, Szafarnia (pol) since 1993, etc.
It is a great pleasure to be at such events. One may hear truly magnificent performances
and discover wonderful talented pianists at young age, such as Yuja Wang, Lang Lang,
Yundi Li, Markus Groh, Boris Giltburg, to mention just a few, at the start of their careers.
On the next pages, it can be seen which competitions from among the ones affiliated with
AAF, offer special age categories for young pianists. (The age brackets are only indicative.)
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