Glocal Piano Project set for November 20–30, 2024

Once again, the first round of the Busoni Piano Competition will be held as a hybrid, global piano festival As registrations closed on May 15, the Busoni-Mahler Foundation had received 648 applications for the 65th Busoni Piano Competition, setting an all-time record! The first jury, Yejin Gil, Anna Geniushene and Peter Paul Kainrath, carefully evaluated all submissions, selecting 120 candidates who will subsequently be invited to play in Steinway & Sons Showrooms all over the world. There, their performances can be enjoyed by live audiences while at the same time being professionally recorded in order to be evaluated by the jury and followed by the global online audience.

All participants are given the opportunity to perform on a D-274 concert grand piano, Steinway & Sons’ legendary flagship instrument.

One of the main goals of the Glocal Piano Project is to give the competition and its participants greater visibility in the world, but also to limit travel distance to a reasonable limit, thus making the first stage more sustainable. After analysing the cities of residency of the various candidates, several cities in Asia, North America and Europe will be chosen together with Steinway & Sons.

Ann-Paulin Steigerwald, Head of Concerts & Artists EMEA at Steinway & Sons, notes: “The Glocal Piano Projects dovetails with Steinway’s commitment to music, innovation and artistry. Since its founding, Steinway has been preoccupied with the next generation of musicians, and we remain delighted to support the continuing mission of this project.”

The dates of the 2024 Glocal Piano Project have already been set: Between November 20 and 30, the hybrid first stage will take place, once more taking on the shape of one global piano festival. As soon as the first recordings haven being uploaded to the dedicated website, the jury, consisting of Giuseppe Albanese, Jan Bartos, Anna Gourari, Nicolas Namoradze, Alberto Nosè, Herbert Schuch and Zee Zee, will start working on the evaluation process. The definite results will be announced on December 12 — by then, we will know the names of the 33 pianists who will be invited to Bolzano in August 2025 to play in the final stages! As in previous editions, a maximum of 4 pianists will get to enter the finals through the audience vote.

“…projects like the Glocal Piano Project do not see technology as an enemy, but try to use technology to help the 'real thing'...”

Ingolf Wunder

GPP-Jury Member 2022