Sydney International Piano Competition

The Sydney International Piano Competition is a music competition, presented in Sydney and broadcast live throughout Australia and internationally. It is held every four years, over a three-week period in July–August,^[1] and is internationally recognised as one of the world's great piano competitions.^[2]

The competition was established in July 1977 by Claire Dan, with co-founders Rex Hobcroft and Robert Tobias,^[3] and was admitted as a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions in 1978.^[4][5]

The competition due to be held in 1989 was brought forward to 1988, to coincide with the Australian Bicentenary. The competition due in 2020 was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 epidemic, and was held as a pre-recorded online competition rather than live performances.^[6][7][8] There was another edition in 2023, and the 50th Anniversary edition will be held in 2027.

The artistic director from its inception until 2015 was Warren Thomson, who also served as chairman of the jury from 1992 until 2012. In April 2015, following Thomson's death in February, Piers Lane (a former competitor and juror) was announced as the artistic director of the 2016 competition.^[9]

A total of 32 (originally 36) pianists are selected to participate in the competition. Worldwide auditions are held to select the entrants, who must be aged between 18 and 32.^[1][10] Traditionally, the previous winner presents a Gala Opening recital.

The competition consists of three stages – preliminaries, semi finals and finals. All 32 competitors appear in the preliminaries which consists of two rounds. Round 1 of the preliminaries is a 20-minute solo recital and round 2 is a 30-minute recital. Competitors must include an Australian work in one of these rounds. The organisers have collaborated with Australian Music Centre to compile a list of suggested works by Australian pianists.^[11] Miriam Hyde's Valley of Rocks was one of the pieces set for the 1988 competition; it was chosen by 23 of the contestants, and it went on to become her best-known work.

After the preliminary rounds, the best 12 are chosen to proceed to the Semi Finals which consists of two rounds - Semi Final Round 1 is a 65-minute recital and Semi Final Round 2 is a set chamber concert. In the 13th competition, contestants performed with either a violin or cello. Six competitors advance to the finals, again consisting of two rounds, in which they play two piano concertos with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.^[12][13] In the 13th competition, Finalists played a Concerto written before 1800 in Finals Round 1 and a piano concerto written after 1800 in Finals Round 2.

Until 2016, the first stages took place at the Seymour Centre, University of Sydney.^[14][15][16] In 2016 the venue was changed to Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The final stage is held in the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House except in 2020 when the finals will be held at the Sydney Town Hall due to renovations at the Sydney Opera House.^[17][18]

Until 2020, all stages were broadcast live on radio throughout Australia and to the world online, by ABC Classic FM. In 2020, ABC Classic considered the Sydney International Piano Competition one of its highlights of the year.^[19]

The 2016 and 2023 competitions were streamed live and free on the competition's website and social media channels.^[20] At the 2023 competition, the afternoon session of the competition was aired live on 2MBS Fine Music Sydney, and during the finals the previous nights concert were aired the next day on ABC Classic.

In 2021, for the first time since the competitions inception in 1977, patrons were required to pay a subscription fee to watch and listen to the competition. The ABC for the first time did not broadcast the event on free-to-air television. Instead subscriptions which ranged from $20-$30 per session or an overall online subscription of $350 were charged by SIPCA.

The winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition receives a prize of $50,000 and a number of engagements including a national tour of Australia, international recital opportunities and a CD recording.^[21][22] Smaller prizes are awarded for other placings.^[23] In the competition's forty-six year history, no Australian pianist has won first prize.

The list of musicians and others who have been involved with the competition as either patrons or jurors includes Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lazar Berman, Sir Bernard Heinze, Eileen Joyce, Eugene List, Sir Charles Mackerras, Denis Matthews, Hephzibah Menuhin, John O'Conor, Harold C. Schonberg, Sir Georg Solti and Gordon Watson.^[24]

Despite its generally recognised prestige, the competition, particularly under Warren Thomson's chairing, has been strongly criticised by some established Australian pianists. In the lead up to the 2000 edition of the competition, Australian pianists Michael Kieran Harvey, Leslie Howard, Larry Sitsky and Simon Tedeschi argued that the competition had more to bolster the profiles of students of the jury members but had not been able to find a prominent prize-winner unlike other music competitions.^[24][25] Sitsky believed "the facade is a rather shabby private party in progress."^[25] Harvey argued that the choice of jurors were not of the level expected for such a premier competition.^[25] Critics at the time also pointed to the dominance of the chair, Warren Thomson, who single-handedly chose the repertoire and all the jurors, many of whom are associated with the Australian Institute of Music (AIM), of which he was the Artistic Director for its Professional Development Programs at the time.^[25] He was also quite involved with some competitors lives, with him being an official guardian for one competitor in the 2000 competition, Alexei Yemtsov.^[25] Tedeschi suggested that the performance preparation comes from a pedagogy promoted by Warren that is not to his tastes, which "makes for poor musicianship, and, ultimately, unhappy lives."^[24] Finally, former head of AIM's keyboard department, Margaret Hair, argued that Warren would not promote Australian students through the competition.^[25]

Despite Michael Kieran Harvey's criticism, he agreed to become the commentator for the ABC Classic FM's radio broadcast of the 2000 competition, "in an attempt to provide some objective analysis."^[24]

The 11th Sydney International Piano Competition took place from 6 to 23 July 2016.^[21] The preliminary rounds and semi final sounds were held in the Verbrugghen Hall at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The finals were held at the Sydney Opera House.

• List of classical music competitions

• Official website
• ABC Classic FM – Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia