The XVIII International Chopin Piano Competition () was held from 2 to 23 October 2021 in Warsaw. Originally scheduled for 2020, the quinquennial competition was twice postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
87 pianists from 18 countries took part in the main stage of the competition, which was divided into three stages with 87, 45 and 23 participants each, and a final with twelve pianists. The first prize was awarded to Bruce Liu of Canada.
Background The competition was originally scheduled to take place from 2 to 23 October 2020, with the preliminary round to be held from 17 to 28 April. In May 2020, the competition was postponed to the same dates in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was decided by Poland's Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Piotr Gliński, together with Artur Szklener, director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, after additional consultations with Poland's Ministry of Health. In January 2021, Szklener announced that the preliminary round would be postponed to July.
Awards
The jury awarded eight main prizes to the finalists of the competition. The first prize went to Bruce Liu of Canada. The second prize was jointly awarded, ex aequo, to Alexander Gadjiev and Kyohei Sorita, while the third prize went to Martín García García. The fourth prize was shared, ex aequo, by Aimi Kobayashi and Jakub Kuszlik, the fifth prize was awarded to Leonora Armellini, and the sixth prize went to J J Jun Li Bui.
Artur Szklener, director of the Chopin Institute, announced that three pianists had identical scores, leading to very long debates among the jury. The winner of the competition, however, was unambiguously decided.
PrizeWinner €40,000Bruce Liu €30,000Alexander Gadjiev €30,000Kyohei Sorita €20,000Martín García García 4th €15,000Aimi Kobayashi€15,000Jakub Kuszlik 5th €10,000Leonora Armellini 6th €7,000J J Jun Li Bui €4,000Eva Gevorgyan €4,000Hyuk Lee€4,000Kamil Pacholec€4,000Hao Rao
In addition, three of the four special prizes were awarded. Special prizeFounderWinnerBest Performance of a Concerto€5,000Warsaw PhilharmonicMartín García GarcíaBest Performance of Mazurkas€5,000Polish RadioJakub KuszlikBest Performance of a Polonaise€5,000Fryderyk Chopin Societynot awardedBest Performance of a Sonata€10,000Krystian ZimermanAlexander Gadjiev
Preliminary stage The preliminary stage was held from 12 to 23 July 2021 in the Chamber Hall of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw. Participants were required to perform the following works:
Preliminary stage programOne of Étude Op. 10, No. 1 Étude Op. 10, No. 4 Étude Op. 10, No. 5 Étude Op. 10, No. 8 Étude Op. 10, No. 12 Étude Op. 25, No. 11One of Étude Op. 10, No. 2 Étude Op. 10, No. 7 Étude Op. 10, No. 10 Étude Op. 10, No. 11 Étude Op. 25, No. 4 Étude Op. 25, No. 5 Étude Op. 25, No. 6 Étude Op. 25, No. 10One of Nocturnes, Op. 9, No. 3 Nocturnes, Op. 27, No. 1 or 2 Nocturnes, Op. 37, No. 2 Nocturnes, Op. 48, No. 1 or 2 Nocturnes, Op. 55, No. 2 Nocturnes, Op. 62, No. 1 or 2 Étude Op. 10, No. 3 Étude Op. 10, No. 6 Étude Op. 25, No. 7One of Ballade No. 1, Op. 23 Ballade No. 2, Op. 38 Ballade No. 3, Op. 47 Ballade No. 4, Op. 52 Barcarolle, Op. 60 Fantaisie, Op. 49Two Mazurkas from Mazurkas, Op. 17 Mazurkas, Op. 24 Mazurkas, Op. 30 Mazurkas, Op. 33 Mazurkas, Op. 41 Mazurkas, Op. 50 Mazurkas, Op. 56 Mazurkas, Op. 59
Ultimately, 151 contestants performed in the preliminary stage, of which the jury admitted 78 to the main stage. They were joined by an additional nine pianists, who qualified to the main stage directly by winning major piano competitions.
+ CompetitorCountryResultLeonora ArmelliniTo Stage IAnfisa BobylovaJ J Jun Li BuiTo Stage IŁukasz ByrdyMichelle CandottiTo Stage ILuigi CarrocciaKai-Min ChangTo Stage IHan ChenJunhui ChenTo Stage IXuehong ChenTo Stage IZixi ChenTo Stage IHyounglok ChoiTo Stage IMartina ConsonniDiana CooperFederico Gad CremaTo Stage IAleksandra Hortensja DąbekTo Stage IStephanie DraughonHsin-Yu DuanMateusz DudaAlberto FerroTo Stage IYasuko FurumiTo Stage IAlexander GadjievTo Stage IMartín García GarcíaTo Stage IEva GevorgyanTo Stage IJorge González BuajasanTo Stage IJoanna GorankoTo Stage IChelsea GuoTo Stage IXu GuoEric GuoTo Stage IKatharina HackChi Ho HanSaaya HaraTo Stage IYukino HayashiWataru HisasueYifan HouTo Stage IWei-Ting HsiehTo Stage IYun-Chih HsuKaoruko IgarashiTo Stage IHana IgawaRiko ImaiTo Stage IGrigoris IoannouSeika IshidaJunichi ItoTo Stage IAndrei IvanouAsaki IwaiTo Stage ISan JittakarnTo Stage IJoo-Yeon KaTo Stage IYukino KaiharaHyelee KangHyelee KangElizabeth KaraulovaAiri KatadaEylam KeshetKonstantin KhachikyanNikolay KhozyainovTo Stage IHyelim KimJun Ho KimSu Yeon KimTo Stage IYurika KimuraAimi KobayashiTo Stage IQi KongPavle KrsticMateusz KrzyżowskiTo Stage IYukine KurokiJakub KuszlikTo Stage IShushi KyomasuTo Stage IHyuk LeeTo Stage IJaeyoon LeeTo Stage IXinjie LiNing Yuen LiXiaoxuan LiTo Stage IHao Wei LinBruce LiuTo Stage IZiyu LiuJulia ŁozowskaTo Stage IXuanyi MaoTo Stage ITomasz MarutTo Stage IYupeng MeiTo Stage IAsaka MiyoshiMomoko MizutaniArsenii MunTo Stage IMayaka NakagawaYui NakamuraViệt Trung NguyễnTo Stage IMariko NogamiArisa OnodaGeorgijs OsokinsTo Stage IAnke PanEryk ParchańskiJinhyung ParkTo Stage IYeonmin ParkTo Stage IJiana PengTo Stage ILeonardo PierdomenicoTo Stage IZuzanna PietrzakTo Stage IAgnė RadzevičiūtėHao RaoTo Stage IYangyang RuanTo Stage IKazuya SaitoCristian SandrinSohgo SawadaTo Stage IAristo ShamTo Stage IMeng-Sheng ShenKotaro ShigemoriMiyu ShindoTo Stage IMana ShojiTalon SmithTo Stage IKyohei SoritaTo Stage IVitaly StarikovSzu-Yu SuTo Stage IHayato SuminoTo Stage IAleksandra ŚwigutTo Stage IMarcel TadokoroRikono TakedaTo Stage IShunshun TieTo Stage IMateusz TomicaSarah TuanTo Stage IParker Van OstrandMónika Ruth VidaChao WangTo Stage IZitong WangTo Stage IBocheng WangChanel WangYijia WangLiya WangZijian WeiTo Stage IJacek WendlerMarcin WieczorekTo Stage IAndrzej WiercińskiTo Stage IVictoria WongTo Stage ISze Yuen WongMaciej WotaMaiqi WuYuchong WuTo Stage ILingfei (Stephan) XieTo Stage IBiguo XingZi XuTo Stage IMiki YamagataYuanfan YangTo Stage IAnastasia YaskoTo Stage ISuah YeShih-Hsien YehYi YiHao Zi YohSe-Hyeong YooJessica YumaAndrey ZeninTo Stage IBoao ZhangTo Stage IYilan ZhaoTo Stage IKaiwen ZhaoZiji Zoé ZhaoTo Stage ITianyu Zhou
An additional nine pianists qualified to the main stage directly by winning major piano competitions: + CompetitorCountryAdmission throughPiotr Alexewicz 2020 Polish Fryderyk Chopin Piano CompetitionAvery Gagliano 2020 National Chopin Piano Competition of the USAAdam Kałduński 2019 Beijing International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition for Young Pianists 2020 Polish Fryderyk Chopin Piano CompetitionSzymon Nehring 2017 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master CompetitionEvren Ozel 2020 National Chopin Piano Competition of the USAKamil Pacholec 2019 International Paderewski Piano CompetitionPiotr Pawlak 2017 Darmstadt International Chopin Piano Competition 2020 Polish Fryderyk Chopin Piano CompetitionYutong Sun 2018 Santander International Piano CompetitionTomoharu Ushida 2018 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition
Main stage The main competition from 3 to 20 October consisted of three stages and a final. An inaugural concert was held on 2 October, and the prize-winners' concerts took place from 21 to 23 October.
Stage I was held from 3–7 October 2021 and was contested by 87 participants. Stage II was held from 9–12 October 2021 and was contested by 45 participants. Stage III was held from 14 to 16 October 2021 and was contested by 23 participants. The final was held from 18 to 20 October 2021 and was contested by twelve participants.
Calendar (CEST) 3 Oct 4 Oct 5 Oct 6 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 9 Oct 10 Oct 11 Oct 12 Oct 13 Oct 14 Oct 15 Oct 16 Oct 17 Oct 18 Oct 19 Oct 20 Oct Stage I 10:00 (morning session)17:00 (evening session) Stage II 10:00 (morning session)17:00 (evening session) Stage III 10:00 (morning session)17:00 (evening session) Final 18:00
Summary Stage I The first pianist to perform in Stage I was Xuanyi Mao of China. The letter "M" was drawn with a lottery machine by Piotr Gliński, the Polish Minister of Culture, at a press conference a week earlier.
Polish Radio commentators described Szymon Nehring's playing as "extremely mature", completely different than the previous competition, where he had been a finalist. Jed Distler from Gramophone noted that Georgijs Osokins' performance was "strikingly individual", with an "epic sense of time scale" akin to Emil Gilels. Japanese pianist Sohgo Sawada was called the best performer of the first day's evening session, possessing "disarmingly sincerity" in his performance of the Ballade in G minor. On the second day, the performance of Talon Smith of the United States was unanimously praised by the Polish Radio, and he was described as a "very musical pianist with a great imagination". Distler called Smith one of those youngsters who sound "wise beyond their years", approaching Chopin as "a master pianist with an old soul". On Day 3, commentators highlighted the "Italian dominance" of the day, with Leonora Armellini, who made the greatest impression, particularly in her performance of the Etude in C-sharp minor, and Michelle Candotti. Distler praised Armellini's "liquid sonority" and "flexible phrasing", in complete command of her chosen Fazioli piano. Italian-Slovenian pianist Alexander Gadjiev drew attention on the fourth day. Róża Światczyńska of the Polish Radio remarked: "He is coming here because he has something to say from himself, a very coherent vision of music, and he wants to pass it on to us regardless of how he is judged." Gadjiev's performance of the études was particularly praised. Distler described 17-year-old Yifan Hou as having "power, personality, style, technique, communicative immediacy and natural musicality", noting the "shocking" impact of his "compact, dramatic and kinetically fervent" performance of the first Ballade.
From the first stage, 45 pianists were admitted to the second stage, five more than originally prescribed in the competition format. Commentators remarked that some score differences were likely minimal and that it might have been too harsh to eliminate some participants.
Stage II