New piano competition for adult amateurs attracts heavyweight backing and offers fantastic opportunities
Three high profile partners – Yamaha, Chetham’s International Summer School & Festival for Pianists and Pianist magazine – have joined forces and announced a new competition for outstanding amateur adult pianists with a great range of recording and performances opportunities on offer.
Prizes include a performance with the Manchester Camerata, a recording to be featured on Pianist magazine’s front cover CD plus an in-depth article inside, a free place on the 2013 Chetham’s International Summer School – and if that’s not enough, a recital in Yamaha’s recital hall in central London.
‘We wanted to produce a professional, well organised and resourced showcase opportunity for the thousands of talented and passionate amateur pianists who love the piano, and labour at home for hours on end, who yearn for an opportunity to play in a professional public setting with professional musicians’, so says Leanne Barrell from Yamaha.
Murray McLachlan, who is Head of Keyboard at Chetham’s School of Music, comments further: ‘Whilst practicing and having lessons are relatively easy to arrange, it is much harder to findopportunities to perform and aim for goals away from grade exams and diplomas. This is where this new competition comes into its own. The prizes on offer include valuable tuition from international performers and teachers, as well as golden opportunities for performance in front of large audiences at the Royal Northern College of Music concert hall and during the Chetham’s Summer School itself.’
The Competition, now open and inviting entries, is open to pianists over 30 years of age and features both Classical and Modern categories. All applicants need to do initially is submit an unedited CD of at least two contrasting works. Full details on how to enter, the regulations and prize structure are now available from http://uk.yamaha.com/
Entries close on 1 May 2012, from which a number of short listed semi finalists will be invited to perform before a jury in August 2012 at Chetham’s International Summer School in Manchester. The organisers also confirm that every entry will receive written comments from jury members on their performance. A maximum of eight pianists will then be chosen to proceed to the finals, which will be held at the Royal Northern College of Music on the evening of 22 August. Finalists will perform before an audience and a distinguished jury which comprises Noriko Ogawa, Michael Roll, Jason Rebello, Nikki Iles, Murray McLachlan and Pianist magazine editor Erica Worth.
Erica Worth comments, ‘We want to be able to give amateur pianists of all levels, and who play all types of repertoire, the chance to work towards something really challenging, with the ultimate opportunity of getting up there and playing on stage on a concert grand, in front of a live audience. And it’s not actually so much about winning the top prize – it’s about the whole process from when the person decides to enter, chooses what repertoire to learn, tries to perfect it, makes the recording, and then finally gets that entry in to the post! No matter how far any entrant gets in this Competition, it will be worth it, because they will have improved, they will have worked towards a dream, and they will surely look forward to the next one!’
To pay your entry fee for the 2012 Amateur Piano Competition visit
