France – Orleans

Biography

Born in 2003 in Guangzhou, China, Athena Deng studied piano at Oberlin Conservatory in the classes of Dang Thai Son and Stanislav Ioudenitch, where she obtained a Bachelor of Music. She is currently pursuing her Master of Music degree under the tutelage of Dang Thai Son at New England Conservatory of Music. A laureate of several awards, she has notably received top prizes at the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition, the Canadian Chopin Piano Competition, the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition and the William Knabe International Competition. She regularly performs in concert in Canada and the United States and currently resides in Boston, USA. Her interest in contemporary music stems from sound design in avant-garde cinema, as well as electroacoustic works that prod at the possibilities of the piano as an instrument.

Note of intent

Soundscapes
Embark on an adventure through soundscapes of past and imagined worlds, shaped by that which feels at once familiar yet elusive. Paréidolie refashions traces of ancient structures, their contours continually transformed through modern pianistic techniques, harmonies interwoven and notes tumbling upon one another. What will we hear next? Perhaps the jagged, looming monoliths of Granites… perhaps, in Métopes, sirens inhabiting an isle amidst shifting waves, or on a distant shore, a mysterious helper — at last, an inkling of human presence in these strange and wonderful journeys.

Programme

Michaël Levinas, Paréidolie 
Dane Rudhyar, Granites 
Prix Paul Zukofsky
Karol Szymanowski, Métopes :
L’île des Sirènes
Nausicaa 

Watch here the video of her first round

Biography

Born in 1996 in South Korea, Joohyang Han studied piano at Seoul National University in the class of Min-jung Lee, where she obtained a Bachelor of Music, and she is currently pursuing her master’s degree at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon in the class of Sébastien Vichard. A laureate of several awards, she has notably received the Second Prize at the Buam Competition (2019), the Diplôme de mérite at the Lyon International Competition (2025) and was a scholarship recipient of the Samick Cultural Foundation. She regularly performs in concert in France and currently resides in Lyon, France.
 She developed an interest in contemporary music during her university years, when she had the opportunity to perform a newly composed work and collaborate directly with a living composer. The experience of shaping a piece through close interaction with the composer was particularly inspiring. In addition, performing George Crumb’s Makrokosmos introduced her to unconventional piano techniques and new sound possibilities, which sparked her curiosity to further explore contemporary music. Furthermore, participating in a workshop led by Trio Catch helped her realize that contemporary music is not merely difficult or obscure, but rather a different musical language, deepening her interest in this field.

Note of intent

This programme brings together three distinct approaches to musical structure and sonic imagination. Carter’s Two Thoughts about the Piano explores contrast and concentration through highly individual musical forms. Levinas’s Paréidolie focuses on the transformation of sound and resonance as structural elements. Scriabin’s Fourth Sonata combines a tightly constructed formal trajectory with a rich and expansive harmonic language.

Programme

Elliott Carter, Two Thoughts about the Piano :
Intermittences
Caténaires 
Prix Elliott Carter
Michaël Levinas, Paréidolie
Alexander Scriabin, Sonata No. 4, Op. 30 :
Andante
Prestissimo volando 

Watch here the video of her first round

Biography

Born in 1994 in Taipei, Taiwan, Shan-Chi Hsu studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln in the class of Pierre-Laurent Aimard, where she earned a Master’s degree in Contemporary Piano Music; as well as at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover with Bernd Goetzke, completing with a Konzertexamen diploma. She was selected as pianist of the International Ensemble Modern Akademie 2023/24. Shan-Chi is a recipient of the 31st CHIMEI Cultural Foundation Artist Award in Taiwan, the #MusikerZukunft scholarship from the Deutsche Orchester-Stiftung and the Scholarship for Contemporary Music from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. She performs regularly across Europe and has appeared at major festivals including the Stresa Festival, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Impuls Festival, Gaudeamus Festival, and the Lucerne Festival. She currently resides in Germany. It was through working on modern song literature (Lied) that she developed a profound interest in contemporary music, opening up new artistic perspectives and sound worlds. This journey has since been enriched by close collaborations with composers and active participation in the creative process, she is committed to creating concert programs and performances that are diverse and thought-provoking.

Note of intent

Memory and time lie at the heart of this programme. Paréidolie explores the transformation of remembered musical forms, while selections from Kurtág’s Játékok reveal how the smallest gestures can evoke entire expressive worlds. Elliott Carter’s 90+ and Eric Wubbels’ Psychomechanochronometer invite us to reconsider our perception of time, creating musical environments in which stability and change constantly interact.
Despite their diverse aesthetics, these works share a fascination with how we listen: how we recognise patterns, construct meaning, and navigate the passage of time.

Programme

Elliott Carter, 90+
Prix Elliott Carter
Michaël Levinas, Paréidolie 
György Kurtág, Játékok : selection of extracts
Eric Wubbels, Psychomechanochronometer 

Watch here the video of her first round

Biography

Born in 1997 in Aschaffenburg, Germany, Lukas Katter studied piano at the Cologne University of Music and Dance as well as the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in the classes of Prof. Florence Millet, Prof. Gerald Hambitzer, Prof. Joonas Ahonen, Prof. Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Prof. Stefan Arnold, where he obtained a Master‘s degree in piano performance and has completed the postgraduate program at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. A laureate of several awards, he has notably received first prize at the Karlrobert Kreiten piano competition 2020, the Siegfried Ernst-Preis at the European Piano competition Bremen 2024. In addition to this he has received scholarships from the International Association of Richard Wagner Societies as well as most recently from the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund. He performs internationally and currently resides in Alzenau, Germany. His interest in contemporary music started earlier on during his Bachelor studies with Prof. Florence Millet, when he had several opportunities to premiere pieces, collaborate in Ensembles and continued with further fruitful influences in studies of contemporary piano music with Prof. Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Prof. Joonas Ahonen. 

Note of intent

This programme explores ambiguity, hidden forces, and the play of perception. Denisov’s Reflets evokes flickering, shimmering textures, with sounds that emerge, vanish, and reappear, creating an atmosphere of fluid mystery and subtle tension. Levinas’s Paréidolie similarly invites the listener into an elusive sonic world, where familiar shapes seem to emerge from the musical surface before dissolving once again into resonance and transformation. Ravel’s Scarbo shares this ambiguity — dim light hinting at what lurks in the shadows — while casting a darker and more overtly terrifying world through rapid motifs, sudden shifts, and extreme contrasts that startle and unsettle. Together, these works play tricks on the senses and are defined by vivid, highly evocative imagery.

Programme

Edison Denisov, Reflets 
Prix Edison Denisov
Michaël Levinas, Paréidolie 
Maurice Ravel, Gaspard de la nuit : Scarbo 

Watch here the video of his first round

Biography

Born in 2002 in Tokyo, Japan. After graduating from the Piano Performance Course at Tokyo College of Music High School, she completed her bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance at Tokyo College of Music. She is currently enrolled in the master’s program at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main. She has studied piano with Chika Inaoka, Motoi Kawashima, Kyoko Kaise, and Florian Hölscher. After being based in Tokyo for her musical activities, she is now based in Frankfurt, Germany. Her interest in contemporary music emerged through close engagement with composers of her own generation. She is particularly drawn to how they perceive society and history, how they position music within their artistic and ideological frameworks, and how these ideas can be realized through performance. For her, contemporary music resists facile simplifications and offers a sensitive way of engaging with the complexity of the world, which continues to strongly inspire her.

Note of intent

We are often made to dance in the night.
In darkness, the awakened mind cycles through endless questions and answers, at times soaring with a sense of omnipotence, at others trembling before the uncertain echoes of silence. Repeatedly, it experiences strange moments suspended between dream and reality.
If little spirits of the night exist, they would surely watch us — so busy and absurd — and laugh.
This programme seeks to capture the many faces of the sleepless night: awakening, silence, and madness.

Programme

Elliott Carter, Night Fantasies 
Prix Elliott Carter
Salvatore Sciarrino, Notturno n° 1 
Michaël Levinas, Paréidolie 

Watch here the video of her first round

Biography

Born in 1997 in Omsk, Russia, Georgy Krizhnenko studied piano at Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève in the class of Nelson Goerner and at Moscow Academy of Performing Arts in the class of Vasily Ermakov where he obtained his diploma in Instrumental Performance and Teaching. Since 2025, he has the honour of continuing his development under the guidance of Rena Shereshevskaya. A laureate of several awards, he has notably received the Grand Prix, Audience Prize, and Young Audience Prize at the 2025 Henri Kowalski International Piano Competition and the Second Prize at 7th International Music Competition in Paris (2025). He also won the First Prize at the Rotary Club International Piano Competition (Moscow, 2009), Grand Prix at the Rubinstein Competition (St. Petersburg, 2008), and the “Sforzando” Competition (Berlin, 2008). He regularly performs in concert in France, Switzerland and across Europe and currently resides in Paris, France. Georgy Krizhnenko’s current passion for contemporary music emerged relatively recently. As a musician raised within the Romantic paradigm, he was initially skeptical of contemporary music in his youth. However, at a certain point in his adult life — after many wanderings and even a break from playing — he was profoundly struck by The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky and Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta by Béla Bartók. These works sparked an intense interest in new modes of musical expression and ultimately led him toward a continuous exploration of extended performance techniques. At the same time, the inability to create a genuinely new interpretation — one not confined within the brackets of established tradition, which performers are often compelled to reproduce without true understanding due to rigid frameworks that limit alternative perspectives on musicology — frequently frustrated him within the traditions of the “Romantic school.” As a result, his entry into the world of contemporary music became a powerful source of energy and vivid curiosity: a discovery, for both himself and the audience, of a vast body of still “unworn” music, where it becomes possible to communicate a personal artistic vision through a direct and unmediated reading of art.

Note of intent

Fragments
When a whole shatters into pieces, it is not always a loss or a defeat. A mirror, once broken, becomes a multitude of shimmering fragments; a solid mass is ground into grains of sand; firm land, divided by water, becomes an archipelago.
Unity exists not only in wholeness, but also in multiplicity.

Programme

Dane Rudhyar, Granites
Prix Paul Zukofsky
Henry Cowell, Aeolian Harp (for prepared piano)
Michaël Levinas, Paréidolie 
Leonid Desyatnikov, Songs of Bukovina : Ой, Канадочка Широка 
André Boucourechliev, Archipel 4 
Prix André Boucourechliev
Francis Poulenc, Nocturne n° 4 « Bal fantôme » 

Watch here the video of his first round

Biography

Born in 2001 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Carter Muller studied piano at the Sweelinck Academy / Conservatory of Amsterdam in the classes of Marjes Benoist and Nino Gvetadze, the International Piano Academy “Incontri col Maestro” with Igor Roma, and then at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) in the class of Prof. Till Fellner, where he obtained both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Solo Performance. In fall 2023 he began a Master’s degree in New Music (contemporary music) with Prof. Nicolas Hodges at the HMDK Stuttgart. A laureate of several awards, he has notably received First Prize at the 2022 Landolt Competition, Classic Young Master title (including professional career development coaching), first prize at the Young Musician of the Year Competition of the Royal Concertgebouw, prizes at the Bach Festival, Russian Composer Festival, Princess Christina Competition, YPF Piano Competition, and others. He regularly performs in concert throughout Europe, North America and Asia, appearing with ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, the Arc-en-Ciel Ensemble, the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra, and at venues including the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He currently resides in Leipzig, Germany. Carter’s interest in contemporary music grew from a deep curiosity about the expressive possibilities of the piano beyond traditional repertoire. Through collaborations with leading contemporary ensembles like Klangforum Wien and his advanced studies in New Music, he has developed a passion for exploring and performing works by living composers and 20th-/21st-century repertoire. This interest is rooted in his desire to connect deeply with the language of our time and to bring new music into dialogue with classical traditions.

Note of intent

Emerging Patterns
Pareidolia describes the phenomenon whereby the brain projects meaningful patterns onto ambiguous stimuli. This programme explores the limits of that perceptual instinct. In Caténaires, a single continuous line of notes becomes a surface from which melodic shapes and gestures emerge and dissolve. Through Kinderstück, 90+, and Invention, the musical material acquires increasing polyphonic density. In Négy tárgy, evocative titles transform abstract sonic material into tangible objects. Crawford Seeger, inspired by late Scriabin, condenses a harmonically rich and mystical atmosphere into miniature form. Levinas’s Paréidolie forms the conceptual centre of the programme, while Boucourechliev’s Orion III concludes it with a dizzying constellation of notes.

Programme

Elliott Carter, Two Thoughts About the Piano : Caténaires 
Prix Elliott Carter
Anton Webern, Kinderstück 
Elliott Carter, 90+ 
Prix Elliott Carter
György Ligeti, Invention 
Márton Illés, Négy tárgy « Four Objects » :
Szélgesztuok « Wind Gestures » 
Hado-nász « Flailing Marriage » 
Geóda és burjánzás « Geode and Overgrowth » 
Régi óra « Old Clock » 
Ruth Crawford Seeger, Nine Preludes for Piano : Andante tranquillo 
Michaël Levinas, Paréidolie 
Alexander Scriabine, Five Preludes, op. 74 : Lent, vague, indécis 
André Boucourechliev, Orion III 
Prix André Boucourechliev

Watch here the video of his first round

Biography

Born in 2001 in New York City, USA, Ayane Nakajima studied piano at Rice University, the Royal College of Music, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in the classes of Jon Kimura Parker, Danny Driver, and Ronan O’Hora. She obtained her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in Performance, and is currently pursuing an Advanced Diploma. A laureate of several awards, Ayane has notably received prizes from YoungArts, Pianale, and the Keyboard Odyssiad. She regularly performs in concerts across France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and is currently based in London, United Kingdom. Deeply committed to championing the voices of living composers, Ayane is passionate about bringing contemporary works into dialogue with the classical canon. She has premiered works both as a répétiteur and soloist for composers including Daniel Zlatkin, Þórður Magnússon, and Eunike Tanzil, among others.

Note of intent

Programme

Michelle Agnès Magalhaes, Mobile 
Edison Denisov, “Reflets” 
Prix Edison Denisov
Michaël Levinas, Paréidolie 

Watch here the video of her first round

Biography

Born in 1996 in Aichi, Japan, Mizuki Ono studied composition at Tokyo University of the Arts in the class of Toshiya Watanabe, where she obtained a Bachelor of Music in Composition. After graduating, she continued her piano studies at the JML Yoshiro Irino Institute of Music in the class of Kazue Nakamura. She won Third Prize at the Contemporary Music Performance Competition “Kyogaku XVI” in 2024. Her interest in contemporary music began during her student years after encountering the music of Toru Takemitsu, which led her to pursue composition alongside her activities as a pianist. Based in Tokyo, she is actively involved in contemporary music projects, including premieres of new works and improvisation.

Note of intent

These three works explore different dimensions of musical listening. In Denisov’s music, silence and resonance become essential elements, shaping the listener’s perception of each sound and its decay. Levinas offers a reflection on memory and transformation, connecting different layers of the piano’s history. Neuwirth expands the instrument’s sound world by combining piano and recorded media, creating shifting relationships between live and recorded sound. Together, these works invite us to listen beyond the notes themselves and to experience sound as space, memory, and time.

Programme

Edison Denisov, Signes en blanc 
Prix Edison Denisov
Michaël Levinas, Paréidolie 
Olga Neuwirth, incidendo/fluido (for piano & electronics)

Watch here the video of her first round

Biography

Born in 1997 in Tokyo, Japan, Linda Ruan studied piano at The Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in the class of James Anagnoson, where she obtained a Bachelor of Music (Honours) in Piano Performance, The Juilliard School in the class of Hung-Kuan Chen, where she obtained a Master of Music in Piano Performance, Tianjin Juilliard School in the class of Xiaohan Wang, where she obtained a Master of Music in Chamber Music and she currently studies at University of British Columbia in the class of Dr. Corey Hamm. A laureate of several awards, she has notably received First Prize in the 2025 Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, Second Prize in the 2024 Shean Strings and Piano Competition, and Second Prize in the 2021 ARD International Music Competition. She regularly performs in concert internationally in North America, Asia and Europe and currently resides in Vancouver, Canada. Linda recently rediscovered her love for contemporary music with the encouragement of her current teacher, Dr. Corey Hamm. It’s been a joy to delve back into the rich, diverse array of soundscapes of the world today. 

Note of intent

Intimate Nocturnes
This round explores music’s relationship with night, memory, and introspection. Beginning with Alice Ho’s Aeon, inspired by the imagery of Salvador Dalí, temporal perception stretches and collapses, making fleeting moments feel eternal. Fauré’s Thirteenth Nocturne, written in his final years, glows with profound serenity. Levinas’s Paréidolie then transmutes memory into musical form: Baroque harmonic architectures resurface in transformed guise through polyphonic variations and broken-chord grids that evolve into renewed fantasies. The round closes with Sondheim’s Into the Woods, reimagined through Akiho’s contemporary lens, where fairy-tale darkness meets sophisticated wit. Together, these works trace an arc from cosmic time and intimate twilight to theatrical enchantment.

Programme

Alice Ping Yee Ho, Aeon 
Gabriel Fauré, Nocturne n° 13 en si mineur, op. 119 
Michaël Levinas, Paréidolie 
Stephen Sondheim (arr. Andy Akiho), Into the Woods 

Watch here the video of her first round

Biography

Born in 1993 in Poznań, Poland. Miłosz Sroczyński studied piano at the Haute École de Musique in Geneva  in the class of Cédric Pescia, at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Zurich in the class of Konstantin Scherbakov and Christoph Berner and at the Royal College of Music in London in the class of Norma Fisher, where he obtained his Artist Diploma. He was a scholar of Royal College of Music and obtained several scholarships and awards in Switzerland, UK, Poland and Israel. His Debut CD wad released in February 2026 on Genuin Classics. He regularly performs in concert in major European cities: London, Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Zurich and the prestigious festivals like Davos Festival. He currently resides in Zurich, Switzerland.
“As a kid and teenager I was spending all my pocket money on CDs. I would always buy myself records of pieces I knew nothing about. I must have been 13 years old when I learned about Xenakis for the first time and heard Ligeti’s Volumina — what a schock it has been! Classical education offered me little space for contemporary music, and I spent years immersed in the traditional canon. But in recent years, this has changed dramatically and I got several opportunities to explore my youth fascination. Performing at the Davos Festival and collaborating directly with living composers has been revelatory: after years of wondering “What would Chopin say?“, I finally had the composer in front of me. I was asking questions, witnessing reactions, suggesting adjustments. It was terrific. Such collaborations led me to a premiere of a new piece in Tonhalle Zurich and other fascinating projects. Applying for the competition is a natural next step in this journey as I never cease to pursue my natural curiosity to discover and explore new things!”

Note of intent

Portraits and Masks
To portray someone is also to place a mask upon them — we never quite see the other person, only the image we create of them. Szymanowski’s Tantris le Bouffon transforms Tristan, the tragic lover, into a clown: the same face seen through the lens of mockery. Harvey surrounds the piano with a recording of its own sound, retuned so that his late teacher Messiaen seems to speak from somewhere just beyond reach — a portrait fashioned from memory. Levinas calls his piece Paréidolie, after the phenomenon by which we see faces in clouds: shapes we recognise because we need to, not because they are truly there. Carter’s Two Thoughts about the Piano offers a portrait of the instrument itself: two voices that interrupt one another and never quite listen, before dissolving into a single line that races forward without pause. Every portrait reveals as much about the observer as about the observed.

Programme

Karol Szymanowski, Masques, op. 34 : Tantris le bouffon 
Jonathan Harvey, Tombeau de Messiaen (for piano & electronics)
Michaël Levinas, Paréidolie
Elliott Carter, Two Thoughts About the Piano :
Intermittences
Caténaires
Prix Elliott Carter

Watch here the video of his first round

Biography

Born in 2000 in Tokyo, Japan, Haruka Ugaji studied piano at Kyoto City University of Arts in the class of Professor Makoto Ueno, where she obtained a Piano Bachelor of Music degree. Currently, she is studying at Mozarteum University Salzburg in the class of Professor Eung-Gu Kim, where she obtains a Piano Master’s and Contemporary music Master’s degree. A laureate of several awards, she has notably received first prize at the 6th Sardoal Young Talent Award in Portugal and the “Honorable Award” at the 24th Matsukata-Hall Music Competition in Kobe, Japan. Since 2024, she has been supported by the Music Foundation “Yamaoka Träumerei”. She regularly performs in concert in Europe and currently resides in Salzburg, Austria.
“I became deeply interested in contemporary music after first seriously encountering it as part of a performance examination during my undergraduate studies, having previously had little exposure to the field. Although it appears complex and precisely notated, I am drawn to how clearly the composer’s intentions are conveyed, while allowing flexibility in timbre and the use of silence.”

Note of intent

In the second round, I explore diverse approaches to sound, time, and musical perception. Levinas’s Paréidolie unfolds a richly nuanced sonic landscape shaped by resonance and timbral transformation. Carter’s Intermittences fragments musical continuity through fleeting gestures and shifting temporal perspectives. Ligeti’s Cordes à vide combines virtuosity with innovative harmonic and rhythmic design, while Nono’s ….sofferte onde serene… creates an immersive sound world in which memory, space, and listening itself become central elements. Together, these works reveal contrasting yet complementary perspectives on contemporary musical expression.

Programme

Michaël Levinas, Paréidolie
Elliott Carter, Two Thoughts About the Piano : Intermittences
Prix Elliott Carter
György Ligeti, Études pour piano : Cordes à vide 
Luigi Nono, …sofferte onde serene… (for piano & electronics)

Watch here the video of her first round