AAF-2022

Various rounds

The table on pages 38-41 shows that most major competitions consist of two or three preliminary rounds followed by a final stage with orchestra.

No elimination

There is not always an elimination after each round ( Bachauer , Honens , Cleveland, Hilton Head, New Orleans, Glasgow, Sydney, Pretoria, Finale Ligure, the Antonio Mormone competition and the Pianale , for example). If the contestants have to perform twice before someone is eliminated, this has been indicated by, for example, "25 + 30" in the column under "1 st stage": all candidates have 25 minutes performance time in the first part and 30 minutes in the second part. The 2022 Liszt Utrecht Competition will have the format of a festival, where all selected participants perform four times before the jury decide who will be the finalists. No elimination at all at the New York International Piano Competition.

One round only

A few other competitions consist of only one single round . For these competitions (and for those where there is no elimination at all) "---" appears in the columns for the 2 nd stage, the 3 rd stage and the finals.

Many rounds

The other extreme is provided by the Cooper Competition in Oberlin (USA) and the Iturbi Competition in Valencia (Spain), where the contestants have to survive four elimination rounds before arriving in the finals. (In Valencia, the last two stages are called Final I and Grand Finale.) Many competitions are preceded by a preselection . More information about this is given on page 33. Some considerations regarding online competitions can be found on pages 34-36. Confusion may easily arise due to the usage of different terminology: after a preselection, organisers may call the first public round 'semi-finals', and sometimes all selected pianists who are invited to compete, are called finalists. The major competitions require a piano concerto for the final stage. A few competitions require two concertos. Sydney and the Antonio Mormone competition require even five piano concertos. From the tables on pages 38-43 it can be seen that in some competitions only one movement (  ) needs to be performed, sometimes with 2 nd piano accompaniment instead of an orchestra. (In the table, this has then been indicated by a brown dot  .) Which piano concertos may be played, is specified in the overviews on pages 48-52.  Piano Concertos 

Alink-Argerich Foundation 2022