Finalists of the Glocal Piano Project 2020

Here are the results of the Glocal Piano Project of the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition and Steinway & Sons!

“If the participants are prevented from travelling to us in Bolzano, let’s meet them where they are!” A great idea, a big task – and feasible!

The first round of the 63^rd Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition was this year held in the countries were the pianists resided. Accordingly, Steinway & Sons turned premises of 23 showrooms around the globe into temporary recording studios and provided concert D-grands. 93 candidates accepted the offer to make a professional video recording of the program that is usually required in the first round of the competition in Bolzano.

It worked out excellently. A brief survey in figures: 506 registrations, 93 participating candidates, 33 finalists, 23 film crews, 23 Steinway & Sons showrooms, 19 countries, 4 continents, 7 jurors, 418.000 views of the videos at the Project’s central web page, 4.500 at Steinway & Sons and 60.000 viewers reached in China through www.amadeus.tv, 19.663 votes submitted in the audience vote.

All videos will remain visible online until September 2021 at concorsobusoni.it, eu.steinway.com and for the Chinese audience at amadeus.tv. A selection of the finalists’ performances will also be available on the classical music channel takt1.de starting in mid-December 2020.

The jury composed of Elmar Weingarten (Chair, Germany), Saleem Ashkar (Israel), Davide Cabassi (Italy), Milana Chernyavska (Ukraine), Michail Lifits (Steinway Artist, Germany), Staffan Scheja (Steinway Artist, Sweden) and Minsoo Sohn (South Korea) made its decision based on the video contributions that appeared online with a 48 hour delay. But also the online audience was invited to vote – the response was overwhelming: Out of 22.452 registered users a total of 19.663 submitted their votes until November 26th. This way, 6 additional finalists were determined, so that a total of 33 pianists will now be admitted to the solo finals beginning in Bolzano in August‘21.

The 25 Finalists identified by the Jury are:
Yao Jialin - China
Kim Do-Hyun - South Korea
Liu Ziyu - China
Sargsyan Zhora - Armenia
Zang Xiaolu - China
Kinasov Maxim - Russia
Ivanova Dina - Russia
Kim Junhyung - South Korea
Han Wenfang - China
Choi Isak - South Korea
Kim Kang Tae - South Korea
Oh Yeontaek - South Korea
Park Jae Hong - South Korea
Park Jieun -South Korea
Youn Jihyung -South Korea
Bertolazzi Giovanni - Italy
Cecino Elia - Italy
Dallagnese Eleonora - Italy
Granata Francesco - Italy
Ranaldi Davide - Italy
Valluzzi Serena - Italy
Kang Hyelee - South Korea
Kotte Mitra - Austria
Sasko Polina - Ukraine
Sternath Lukas - Austria

The 6 candidates entering the competition via the audience vote are:
Ayadi Nour - Morocco
Battiloro Raffaele - Italy
Lee Chang Gyu – South Korea
Marusic Lovre - Croatia
Navarro José - Bolivia
Petrov Vladimir - Mexico/Russia

An additional two candidates will enter the final stages having won a first or second prize in a WFIMC competition, they are:
Danilo Mascetti – Italy (2. Prize UNISA 2020)
Illia Ovcharenko – Ukraine (1. Prize Horowitz Competition)

Special thanks go to all participating Steinway & Sons representatives:
Steinway & Sons Wien (Austria)
Steinway & Sons Barcelona - Jorquera Pianos (Spain)
Steinway Home Beijing (China)
Steinway Piano Gallery Bern - Musik Hug (Switzerland)
Steinway Piano Gallery Brescia (Italy)
Steinway & Sons Budapest – Opera Zongoraterem (Hungary)
Steinway Piano Gallery Cleveland (Ohio - USA)
Steinway & Sons Hamburg (Germany)
Steinway Piano Gallery Helsinki (Finland)
Steinway & Sons Hong Kong - Tom Lee Music (Hong Kong)
Steinway Piano Gallery Houston (USA)
Steinway Hall London (UK)
Steinway Piano Gallery Beverly Hills, Los Angeles (USA)
Steinway Piano Gallery Moscow (Russia)
Steinway & Sons München (Germany)
Steinway & Sons New York Factory (USA)
Steinway & Sons Paris (France)
Steinway Gallery Seoul - Cosmos Music (South Korea)
Steinway Gallery Sydney (Australia)
Steinway Piano Gallery Taiwan
Steinway & Sons Tokyo (Japan)
Steinway Piano Gallery Toronto (Canada)
Steinway & Sons Warsaw - Riff Pianosalon (Poland)

Digital resources:
www.concorsobusoni.it
eu.steinway.com
www.takt1.de

Photo Credits: Deyan-Parouchev, Gerrit Glaner