Russia, South Korea, Croatia, the USA, France, Italy, China, Cuba, and Ukraine: the 27 finalists of this year’s 58th Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition hail from nine different countries. The finalists are: Antonii Baryshevskyi, Anna Bulkina, Tatiana Chernichka, Jae Won Cheung, Han-Bin Chyung, Goran Filipec, George Fu, Maroussia Gentet, Giuseppe Gullotta, Sangil Han, Ji Hwan Hong, Min Soo Hong, Miao Huang, Sae-Nal Kim, Pavel Kolesnikov, Henry Kramer, Yu Mi Lee, Marcos Madrigal, Alessandro Mazzamuto, Zheeyoung Moon, Yixin Pan, Esther Park, Sun-A Park, Ksenia Rodionova, Alessandro Taverna, Natalia Tkachenko, Yunqing Zhou.
Martha Argerich is the president of the 2011 jury, which is composed of many prominent personalities on the international piano scene. She will launch the finals with a special concert on August 23rd, given together with fellow juror and duo partner Lilya Zilberstein.
On August 26th at 8 pm, Nicolas Hodges will premiere the contemporary etudes that the Busoni Foundation commissioned to renowned contemporary composers like Mark Andre, Toshio Hosokawa, Bent Sørensen, and Charles Wuorinen. A performance of the etudes will be a compulsory part of the second solo rounds of the competition, which will be held on the 27th and 28th of August. Tanglewood, London’s BBC, and Wien Modern all have performances of these etudes planned for the fall of 2011.
The first final round with orchestra on August 30th and 31st will spotlight Franz Liszt, whose 200th anniversary will be celebrated this year.
The climax of the competition will, once again, undoubtedly be the grand finale on September 2nd. Only three finalists will take part, and will be accompanied by the Haydn Orchestra under the baton of Arthur Fagen. As in previous years, the public can follow all phases of the finals online at www.concorsobusoni.it