16th International piano competition of Orléans 2024

5 March 2025 by OCI Piano in Adult competition ⋅ Archives

In 1994, 30 years ago, Françoise Thinat realised her dream of offering Orléans a major international piano event devoted to new music and the early 20th century repertoire.

The gamble paid off: from the very first edition, the Competition was a real unifying event with artists from all over the world, young talents who today are among the great professionals of classical and contemporary music. We need only mention that in the prize list of this first edition we find Hideki Nagano, today the official pianist of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, a legendary group created by Pierre Boulez in 1976 and which will accompany our three finalists in October 2024 in Vortex Temporum by Gérard Grisey.

If the Competition has evolved while keeping at heart the fundamental principles of the first edition, 30 years later it remains “dreamy” and still offers new challenges. This is why we are presenting a new formula: the Competition will welcome pianists from all over the world in Orléans, as usual, but it will also go abroad to meet these young pianists who will be the professionals of tomorrow: we will thus organise a first ‘nomadic’ tour which will begin in the spring of 2024 in Chicago, and will continue in Orléans and Shanghai. The candidates selected at the end of this first round will then perform in the second round, the Semi-Final recital and the Final, from October 26 to November 2, 2024 in Orléans, all in the form of a real piano festival. On November 4, the three finalists will perform at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris for the first time with the Ensemble Intercontemporain for a creation by Bastien David in which the three finalists will play… together!

On the artistic side, new music will, as always, be at the forefront: each candidate will be able to propose a free choice of works in his or her programme, throughout the four rounds. Not forgetting the special prizes, the new piece by Bastien David, co-commissioned with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the composition prize once again in partnership with Radio France. The repertoire of the beginning of the century will also have its place, notably in the final where the works of three French composers are proposed to the candidates, works marvellously recorded and interpreted by Françoise Thinat to whom I sincerely wish to dedicate this anniversary edition which would not exist without her!

In the first round, candidates will now have to propose a work from before 1900 to show how 20th and 21st century music can be associated with other repertoires and vice versa.

Once again, an ambitious, dreamy but above all smiling edition… It is with this optimism and enthusiasm that Françoise Thinat has imbued the spirit of the Competition which, thirty years later, continues to inspire its candidates, in particular thanks to the work of the team and of our wonderful association!

Isabella Vasilotta, Artistic director

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(RE)DISCOVER

the programmes & videos of the 12 candidates shortlisted for the second phase of the 16th Competition
a replay of the performances of the 43 candidates in the first round on our Youtube channel
the programme for the second phase of the 16th Competition
the competition catalogue
the pdf rules of the 2024 Competition
the interview with Pierre-Laurent Aimard

DATES

October 10, 2023 (at 2.30 pm, French time) : A one-hour webinar for pianists wishing to register for the 16th Competition. Find here the video.

December 6, 2023 Application deadline

January 9, 2024 Notification of candidates selected for the Competition
January 15, 2024 Deadline for programme modification – 1st round
January 29, 2024 Online draw (to determine the running order of the candidates)

AROUND THE WORLD:

FIRST ROUND

– CHICAGO, USA: March 16-17, 2024, 3.00pm / Roosevelt University — Rudolph Ganz Memorial Hall
– ORLÉANS, France: April 24-27, 2024, 4.00pm / Conservatoire d’Orléans — Salle de l’Institut
– SHANGHAI, China: May 11-12, 2024, 3.00pm / Shanghai Conservatory of Music — He Luting Concert Hall

May 30, 2024: Jury deliberation and Announcement of selected candidates

ORLEANS:

Oct. 26 – Oct. 27, 2024: SECOND ROUND
Salle de l’Institut

Saturday 26 October 2024 – 6 candidates auditioned
from 4.30pm to 6.30pm and from 8.30pm to 10.30pm
Sunday 27 October 2024 – 6 candidates auditioned
from 10.30am to 12.30pm and from 2.30pm to 4.30pm
Announcement of results from 7.00pm

Oct. 28 – Oct. 29, 2024: SEMI-FINAL RECITAL
Salle de l’Institut

October 28, 2024 – 3 candidates auditioned
from 7.30pm to 10.30pm
October 29, 2024 – 3 candidates auditioned
from 7.30pm to 10.30pm
October 30, 2024 – Announcement of the results from 11.00am

Nov. 2, 2024 (3.00pm): FINAL
Théâtre d’Orléans – Scène nationale

Final of the Competition with the Ensemble intercontemporain, conducted by Léo Margue.
3 finalists

PARIS:

November 4, 2024 (8.00pm): CONCERT OF THE FINALISTS
Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris

Concert of the finalists of the 16th International piano competition of Orléans,
with the Ensemble intercontemporain, directed by Léo Margue
And Winston Choi et Imri Talgam.

World premiere of the work commissioned from Bastien David, Je suis orage – a piece for three pianists and ensemble.

2024 PRIZE LIST

JURY MEMBERS

Wilhem Latchoumia, France, Pianist – President of the Jury
Winston Choi, Canada, Pianist
Maroussia Gentet, France, Pianist
Chen Jiang, China, Pianist
Anne Montaron, France, Radio Producer
Imri Talgam, Israel, Pianist

2024 COMMISSION

Title: Je suis Orage
Composer : Bastien David
Note of intent :

Je suis Orage is a concerto for three pianists and two percussionists playing on a single piano, accompanied by an ensemble of musicians. For this creation, three generations of winners of the Orléans International Piano Competition are brought together around the keyboard.
Accepting the unacceptable and dying a slow death.
The piece expresses the energy of a liberation, of breaking through the conflicts that inhabit us through awareness and the desire to live.
Like the expression of a no that thunders in the depths of the soul and allows for something else. This storm to see the rain return, fertile.
This score is the prelude to an evening that will take place in autumn 2026 at the Cité de la musique.