Young Talents at the 17th Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv 2023

Congratulations to the prize winners of the 17th Arthur Rubinstein Competition, which ended on April 1, 2023 in Tel Aviv. Kevin Chen (Canada) won the gold medal, Giorgi Gigashvili (Georgia) won silver, and Yukine Kuroki (Japan) won bronze. The outstanding performances of the participants can be viewed via the streams of all rounds on the competition website.

Emanuel Ax, Gerhard Oppitz, Igor Levit, Khatia Buniatishvili, Daniil Trifonov — many world careers have begun at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition since 1974. Steinway has been an essential and strong partner of this competition from the very beginning — no wonder with its namesake! Arthur Rubinstein is one of the most lucid Steinway Artists of all time! His musical legacy continues to have an impact today.

Juan Pérez-Floristán, Shiori Kuwahara and Cunmo Yin – Prizewinners at the Rubinstein Competition 2021

In 2021, two years ago, the competition took place with a one-year delay and under heavy organizational obstacles because of COVID. The first two rounds had to be held online. The video productions for this took place at five international locations. Incidentally, the event was strongly based on the “Glocal Piano Project” that the Busoni Competition and Steinway had created the year before in the face of the pandemic. At that time, only six pianists traveled to Tel Aviv for the semifinals. Like the Steinway team, they had to undergo a ten-day (!) quarantine before they could get down to business on stage.

The three prize winners, Juan Pérez-Floristán, Shiori Kuwahara and Cunmo Yin, were recently seen and heard again at the opening concert of this year's competition, then as now on Hamburg Steinway D grand pianos. All four piano concertos as well as the “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” by Rachmaninoff have been played. Other soloists included juror Noriko Ogawa, as well as 1995 gold medalist Alexander Korsantia. Both are Steinway Artists.

Most of the young Pianists at the Rubinstein Competition chose a Steinway Grand Piano

What followed was a high-class piano competition, traditionally held for the most part in the hall of the Tel Aviv Museum. The participants had at their disposal two concert grand pianos from Steinway and Fazioli respectively, with the majority opting for Steinway. Three of them, Chaeyoung Park, Giorgi Gigashvili and Kevin Chen reached the finals, which included chamber music, classical and "grand" piano concertos. For the latter, with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Yoel Levi, they moved to the Charles Bronfman Auditorium (“Heichal HaTabut”), a hall of imposing, challenging size. Concert technician Moritz Knauer tuned the Steinway to perfection. And the pianists were more than satisfied!

Chaeyoung Park, Giorgi Gigashvili and Kevin Chen in the finals with a Steinway Grand Piano

Chaeyoung Park and Giorgi Gigashvili had both chosen the Third Piano Concerto by Prokofiev, Kevin Chen the First Piano Concerto by Tchaikovsky. All three performances were excellent, two of them victorious: Giorgi Gigashvili received the silver medal as well as most special prizes. Kevin Chen completed his Steinway hat trick with the gold medal after his victories at the Budapest Liszt Competition (2021) as well as the Concours de Genève (2022).

Of course, our warmest congratulations go not only to them. Steinway's interest and devotion is fundamentally directed towards all pianists, and so our team had good contact with all participants of the competition and offered the support we were there for. We will certainly meet many of them again soon on another occasion. We are looking forward to it and, if we have understood correctly, so are they.

Congratulations to the impressing young pianists!

Photos: © Yoel Levy