The Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition is an international piano competition specializing in the music championed by Arthur Rubinstein. The competition has been held every three years in Tel Aviv, Israel since 1974.
History The Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition came into being in 1973, at the initiative of Jan Jacob Bistritzky, a close friend of Arthur Rubinstein, who was honored to give his name to the Competition.
The Competition aims to attain standards of a high order and is an international forum for presenting aspiring young pianists and assisting in their artistic careers.
The Competition first took place in 1974 and is held every three years.
Rubinstein himself chaired the jury for the first two competitions, when the winners were Emanuel Ax and Gerhard Oppitz.
In 2003 pianist Idith Zvi succeeded Mr. Bistritzky as artistic director, a role she held until her retirement in 2020. Since July 2020, the artistic director of the Competition is pianist Ariel Cohen.
The past 40+ years of its history have continuously produced pianists who went on to international acclaim:Seong-Jin Cho Gerhard Oppitz, Angela Cheng, Alexander Korsantia, Kirill Gerstein, Alexander Gavrylyuk; Igor Levit, Khatia Buniatishvili, Boris Giltburg, David Fung, Daniil Trifonov, Alberto Ferro and others.
Due to the 2026 Iran war, the first stages of the 2026 contest were relocated to the Casals Forum in Kronberg, Germany. The final will be held in Tel Aviv but has been postponed until the security situation is stable enough for it to occur. The finals are currently scheduled for 3-9 September 2026.
Winners
Year First prize Second prize Third prize 1974 Emanuel Ax Eugene Indjic Janina Fialkowska Seta Tanyel 1977 Gerhard Oppitz Diana Kacso Etsuko Terada 1980 Gregory Allen Ian Hobson Geoffrey Tozer 1983 Jeffrey Kahane Hung-Kuan Chen Fei-Ping Hsu 1986 not awarded Thomas Duis Angela Cheng 1989 Ian Fountain Benjamin Frith not awarded Krzysztof Jabłoński 1992 Giorgia Tomassi Simone Pedroni Ilya Itin 1995 Alexander Korsantia Sergey Tarasov Ohad Ben-Ari 1998 Igor Tchetuev Vitaly Samoshko Jong-Gyung Park 2001 Kirill Gerstein Ferenc Vizi Massimiliano Ferrati 2005 Alexander Gavrylyuk Igor Levit Yeol Eum Son 2008 not awarded Roman Rabinovich Ching-Yun Hu Khatia Buniatishvili 2011 Daniil Trifonov Boris Giltburg Ilya Rashkovsky 2014 Antonii Baryshevskyi Steven Lin Seong-Jin Cho 2017 Szymon Nehring Daniel Ciobanu Sara Daneshpour 2021 Juan Pérez Floristán Shiori Kuwahara Cunmo Yin 2023 Kevin Chen Giorgi Gigashvili Yukine Kuroki2026 Dmitry Yudin Uladzislau Khandohi Jinhyung Park Roman Fediurko
See also Music of Israel
References
External links