Sunday's lineup included six pianists from China, three Poles, one Polish-American, two Japanese, and one each from Bulgaria, Canada, Georgia, Italy and Taiwan.
In the morning session - Poland was represented by Mateusz Dubiel, born 2004. He currently studies at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków with Mirosław Herbowsky. In 2022 he won the National Chopin Competition in Warsaw and was runner-up in the ‘Jeune Chopin’ Competition in Lugano and the Baltic Competition in Gdańsk.
The host country representatives performing in the evening session were Adam Kałduński, Mateusz Krzyżowski and Polish-American Antoni Kłeczek.
Kałduński, born 1996, studied at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz with Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń and Jerzy Sulikowski. He won the 2nd International Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in Beijing (2019), as well as first prize and five special prizes in the Premio Amadeus International Piano Competition in Lazise (2023). In 2020 he was awarded second prize in the Polish National Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.
Krzyżowski, born 1999, graduated in 2023 from the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where he studied with Joanna Ławrynowicz-Just. He has won first prize in several piano competitions, including the International Ignacy Jan Paderewski Competition (2022) and ‘Artur Rubinstein in memoriam’ (2021), both held in Bydgoszcz, as well as the National Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2018).
Kłeczek, born 2006, studies privately with Martin Labazevitch in Washington DC, having previously benefitted from private lessons and workshops with esteemed artists such as Piotr Paleczny, Ewa Pobłocka, Garrick Ohlsson, Kevin Kenner and Krzysztof Jabłoński. He is a laureate of international piano competitions: the ‘Artur Rubinstein in memoriam’ in Bydgoszcz (fourth prize), Kościuszko Foundation Chopin Competition in Washington (second prize), Chopin Competition in Szafarnia (first prize) and National Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition (third prize).
A total of 84 pianists from 19 countries eye the honours in this year’s Chopin Competition, including 28 from China and 13 alike from Poland and Japan.
Forty contestants who advance to the second stage are to be announced on Tuesday, October 7, and the Wasaw Competition's prizewinners will be unveiled on October 20. The winner will take home a cash prize of EUR 60,000 and the promise of future solo and orchestral engagements, as well as recordings. Special prizes will also be awarded - among others, for the best performance of Chopin’s mazurka, a sonata, a concerto, plus the audience choice award.
Past winners of the Warsaw Chopin Competition include such world-famous pianists as Maurizio Pollini, Martha Argerich, Garrick Ohlsson, Krystian Zimerman, Rafał Blechacz, Seong-Jin Cho and Bruce Liu.
(mm/mk)
Source: IAR, PAP, NIFC