AAF-2026

2025

2025 has been an incredible year. It sometimes happens that competitions which are held only once in three or four years take place in the same year. In 2025, many major international piano competitions took place, partly overlapping. In May, the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels was for piano again, but overlapped with Dublin, the Beethoven competition in Vienna and the Cliburn (Fort Worth, Texas)! In October, the famous Chopin competition overlapped with the Hong Kong IPC and the Honens in Calgary. First prize of the Queen Elisabeth Compeetition went to Dutch pianist Nikola Meeuwsen, while Aristo Sham from Hong Kong won the Cliburn. A great contrast between these two: Nikola is quite a new-comer in the competition world, while Aristo has been taking part in dozens of competitions over the past 20 years, winning many first prizes and other awards. In Brussels, the audience cheered finalist Jiaxin Min who did not receive one of the main prizes. Japanese Shiori Kuwahara was also among the unranked finalists, but in October she had another remarkable achievement by being among the finalists of the Chopin competition in Warsaw as well! Previously, she had won four times the 2 nd prize at other major competitions (among which the Rubinstein and Busoni competition). These major competitions attract record numbers of applicants. For the Chopin Competition in Warsaw more than 640 pianists had applied! Eric Lu from the U.S.A. ended up as winner. People had been wondering why he had applied again. In 2015, he had already won 4 th prize in Warsaw and in 2018 he won the first prize in Leeds, which had given him a good career. Interestingly, both Aristo Sham and Eric Lu had entered the competition world by taking part in Ettlingen, where their remarkable talents were rightfully acknowledged by the jury who announced them as first prize winners (in 2006 and 2010 respectively). While many young piano stars have been discovered at the competition Ettlingen since 1988, 12-year old Kaoru Amano took part in the concerto competition in Sendai last year which is open for musicians up to 30 years of age. She amazed everyone by being among the finalists. She won 3 rd prize and an audience prize. History thus repeated itself: in 2001, Yuja Wang had done the same in Sendai, though at age 14. 2025 was a very successful year for Carter Johnson from Canada. In May, immediately after winning in Dublin he travelled on to Fort Worth (TX, USA), where he became finalist at the Cliburn as well. In October, he also reached the finals of the Honens competition in Calgary. In 2025, the Bach Competition in Leipzig was open again for piano. It always used to take place in the Summer, but this time it was held in March, and thus overlapped with the Bach competition in Saarbrücken. Two Czech pianists took 1 st and 2 nd prize in Leipzig: Jan Čmejla and Marek Kozák. The year ended with very sad news: the passing of Gary Graffman (1928-2025), a great pianist, wonderful person and teacher of Lang Lang, Yuja Wang and many others.

Alink-Argerich Foundation 2026