Mel Bay's Creative Keyboard® Webzine | Misha Stefanuk - Eighth Annual Chopin Youth Piano Competition

Eighth Annual Chopin Youth Piano Competition

For the third year I was asked to judge the Chopin Young Artist Piano Competition. Twenty-four pianists in two age categories each performed a piece written by Frederick Chopin in front of a live audience and a panel of three judges, after passing the first round, which is judged using an audio recording that the pianists submit. No simplified arrangements were allowed, and all music was performed the way it was originally written.

As usual, the overall level of contestants was very high, and the audience was left amazed at what these young musicians can accomplish. As judges we always have a difficult time deciding who receives the prize. To me, it is always essential to keep any decisive factors other than the performance itself out of the picture. It is easy for me because we usually fly to Milwaukee the day before the competition, and leave the day after, so although I have met some pianists and their teachers, I usually do that after the competition, having no effect on my judgment.

Judges making decision

What are the criteria we use? The first two categories are memory and accuracy. We, as judges, have played Chopin for years, so it is relatively easy to hear any wrong notes or memory slips. The artistic reading of the text is essential in playing classical music; it would be absolutely pointless without a pianist's personal involvement in the material. On the other hand, staying true to Chopin's style and his music is of equal importance. We always suggest listening to multiple recordings before making final decisions on how to play a piece. For example, I would play personally play Chopin with improvised, but that is not the correct approach for a competition like this one. After all, we try to play Chopin's music as it would be played during his lifetime.

One problem that all contestants had to experience was that the Steinway's middle C got stuck, and no one could fix the problem quickly enough to continue the competition. So the decision was made to continue with the missing note, which really did not affect the sound very much. We all have learned that Chopin really uses middle C just about as often as B#! And this limitation turned out to be an interesting challenge for all pianists.

The Chopin competition is a part of the Polish Festival, which celebrated is 25th anniversary this year. It is a brain child of Monika and Lydia Sobieraszki, and represents a great concept for others to follow. Young pianists from over five states submitted their recordings and competed in this year's competition. Every year it gets bigger, and the contestants are prepared better and artistically more grown-up.

Misha Stefanuk with a couple of Prize Winners

This year among other monetary prizes and trophies, the winners have received "Jazz Piano Album," graciously donated by Mel Bay Publications. The book consists of twelve piano pieces written in styles of famous jazz pianists and is at appropriate the difficulty level for most of the prize winners. There are two reasons why this book was chosen: first, we thought it was important for the young musicians to know who their judges are, and second, I thought it is equally important to establish a connection between classical music and jazz. Chopin's debut concert in Vienna ended with improvised set of variations on a theme suggested from the audience, and other parallels between jazz and classical are endless. In our teaching practice we often get so focused on one of these subjects that we forget that we all are students and servants of music, not just a particular genre or style. Mel Bay's list of published piano music is a great illustration of existing musical diversity in today's piano repertoire.

All Prize Winners

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