Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Cleveland International Piano Competition starts 7/24

Thanks, I didn't see that rather tiny link in the bottom right of the viewing screen.

Semifinalists were announced not too long ago:


https://www.clevelandpiano.org/comp...-piano-competition-and-festival/results/


SEMI-FINALISTS

Alexei Tartakovsky
Georgy Tchaidze
Nikita Mndoyants
Yuanfan Yang
Leonardo Colafelice
Dinara Klinton
Jong Hai Park
Tomoki Sakata

Thanks, fnork.

So far I've attended two sessions--and saw four of the semi-finalists--and all the performances have been astonishing. I've particularly liked many of their contemporary selections.

From what I understand after tonight it'll be narrowed down to four, who will then perform with a string quartet and finally the Cleveland Orchestra.

Edit: As an aside, the stream did allow comments which seem to have mercifully stopped. While learning why pianos were being switched was interesting, some people were being absurdly critical and reminded me of the bad parts of music school.

If anyone's interested, the four finalists are:

Georgy Tchaidze
Nikita Mndoyants
Leonardo Colafelice
Dinara Klinton

Very little activity in this thread it seems! I wasn't able to follow the competition as it was happening, but will try to do it afterwards instead. The winners, as most of you may know by now, are:

Mixon First Prize
Nikita Mndoyants

Second Prize
Leonardo Colafelice

Third Prize
Dinara Klinton

Fourth Prize
Georgy Tchaidze


For the full list of awards, see-

https://www.clevelandpiano.org/comp...-piano-competition-and-festival/results/


I was slightly surprised to see that so many were eliminated from the preliminary round - 24 out of 32 contestants, if I'm not mistaken...?

New poster here (but longtime lurker). I saw many of the performances at the competition. Many phenomenal players didn't even make the first cut. I agree with order of the finalists. Mndoyants deserved to win. And I think Tchaidze probably wasn't quite the level of the other three. But in the long run I think that the 20 year old Colafelice will become a star.

I thought of updating the thread but didn't believe many people were interested, but thanks. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who really enjoyed it.

Of those I saw in person, the ones I was most amazed by were Mndoyants and Colafelice, who placed first and second, and Jong Hai Park, who didn't make it to the final.

I'm particularly interested in hearing more of Mndoyants' compositions. He played his own Variations on a Theme by Paganini in the first round, which I really liked.

Rwingguy, I also think Colafelice will likely become a star, as he certainly wowed the audience with his performance of The Nutcracker. (It turned out I was sitting near his host family during his second round performance).

Finally, I'd not really heard Takemitsu's music before, but Park's performance of Rain Tree Sketch II was one of my favorites.

The only negative I can say is that the live stream initially contained viewer commentary/chat which was turned off at some point. While some people were interesting a few fancied themselves as harshly critical judges, and their attitudes reminded me of the things I disliked about music school. (Edit: While the camera work was showed on a screen in the auditorium, thankfully the chat was not).

All in all, though, it was a great experience, and I'm glad I got to see several astounding musicians.