AAF-catalogue-2017

AAF Award
Apart from the receptions which were held with the financial support of AAF, a new
initiative was taken in 2015: to offer a special prize, the AAF Award, at selected major
international piano competitions. With this Award, AAF wishes to encourage and support
outstanding pianists at the early stage of their concert careers.
In every competition, excellent pianists take part, but only a few will win one of the main
prizes. This leaves the other ones almost empty-handed, although they also deserve our
full attention. Many of them have already clearly demonstrated to be professional pianists,
who are ready to give wonderful performances.
With this in mind, the idea of an AAF Award was conceived: to be given to a contestant
who clearly stands out in a major competition and who is not admitted to the finals.
The prize consists of financial support and assistance in the realisation of a next step in the
wnner´s career, while AAF also gives him or her some extra international publicity and
exposure. Naturally, Martha Argerich is also informed and the possibility of having the
Award Winner perform in one of her Festivals is among the options to be considered.
In 2015, the AAF Award was offered at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw and at the
Hamamatsu International Piano Competition. At both competitions, Martha Argerich
was on the jury and had thus the opportunity to hear and evaluate the pianists herself.
In 2016, the AAF Award was offered at three competitions: the Sydney International
Piano Competitin of Australia (two AAF Award winners), the Cleveland International
Piano Competition and the Edvard Grieg Competition in Bergen (Norway).
On the next page, a brief report on the two 2015 AAF Award winners, Dinara Klinton and
Kenji Miura, is given. On pages 72-73, the four 2016 AAF Awards are presented.
Sydney 2016
More than 280 pianists had applied for the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition
of Australia. 32 of them were invited to participate. Alyosha Jurinic (crt) impressed by
his great musiciality, but was among the unfortunate ones who did not pass. Ming Xie
from China also proved to be a wonderful artist, but did not make it into the finals.
Cleveland 2016
31 of the 35 selected pianists took part in Cleveland, many of them already multiple prize
winners in other competitions. Yuanfan Yang (gb) excelled in the semifinals.
Grieg - Bergen 2016
From more than 130 applicants, 30 pianists were selected to come to the Edvard Grieg
Competition in Bergen. Japanese Nozomi Nakagiri’s performance was outstanding.
70 | Piano Competitions Worldwide 2017