Classical Music News

Applications Open for Canada’s 2025 Honens International Piano Competition

August 20, 2024

2 MIN READ

Open to pianists internationally aged 20 to 30, applications will close on October 30, 2024

Held triennially, the Honens International Piano Competition fosters and promotes excellence in piano performance by providing outstanding young artists aged 20 to 30 with a platform to share their talents.

The competition’s Gold Laureate will receive a $100,000 CAD cash award; the Silver Laureate will be awarded $40,000 CAD; and the Bronze Laureate will win $20,000 CAD. All seven Semifinalists will receive $2,500 CAD each. Other prizes include the Audience Award and the Best Performance of Commissioned Work — both valued at $2,500 CAD.

Additionally, the competition will provide Laureates with the Artist Development Program, involving a comprehensive, three-year artistic development and career accelerator program tailored to the Laureates’ goals.

New in the 2025 edition, the competition will offer its Incubator Award to a passionate Quarterfinalist for up to three years of support for one special project. The 2025 Mentor-In-Residence will be pianist Sir Stephen Hough.

The Quarterfinals will be held from March 2–4, 2025 in Berlin, and from March 17–19, 2025 in New York. The Semifinals and Finals will take place in Calgary, Alberta, from October 16–24, 2025.

All Semifinalists will perform a newly-commissioned work by composer Iman Habibi, and collaborate with cellist Rachel Mercer. Finalists will collaborate with the Isidore String Quartet, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and conductor Elias Grandy.

For more information and to apply, click here. Applications will close on October 30, 2024.

Initially, 50 pianists will be selected to advance to the Quarterfinals; candidates will be notified of the decision on December 9, 2024.

The Applicant Screening Jury will comprise Tanya Bannister, Tema Blackstone, Karim Said, and Micah Yui. The First Jury, which will select 10 pianists to advance to the Semifinals, will comprise Sara Davis Buechner, Nicolas Namoradze, Marianne Perron, and Robert Roux. The Second Jury for selecting the Finalists will include Philippe Bianconi, Jenny Bilfield, Janina Fialkowska, Pavel Kolesnikov, Anne-Marie McDermott, Awadagin Pratt, and Joyce Yang.

Unique to the Honens International Piano Competition is its recognition and encouragement of musicians who are leaders in their craft artistically and practically. Identifying this as The Complete Artist, the competition is looking for musicians who are thoughtful and well-informed interpreters of the music and imaginative collaborators.

The Complete Artist is encouraged to have a distinctive voice and an interest in music and its contexts across musical literature and the general arts — plus aims to be socially conscious, an inclusive communicator, and have intellectual and emotional understandings of the music.