Partnership with Ferruccio Busoni Competition

The International piano competition of Orléans (France) selects a list of recent piano works for the semifinals of the 64rd Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition.

Orléans Concours International, a French institution founded by pianist Françoise Thinat and focusing on XXth and XXIst centuries works, has been selecting young talents accomplished in contemporary piano repertoire since 1994. Excellence and innovation are the values that have always guided OCI’s artistic activities, which include the Concours international de piano d’Orléans, the ‘Brin d’herbe’ international junior piano Competition, the recording of numerous albums and the commissioning of new works by internationally renowned composers while simultaneously championing the works of emerging young composers. Likewise, OCI guides and supports its laureates as their careers evolve through concerts, master classes, exhibitions, conferences and events, all the while focusing on the piano repertoire from 1900 up the present day. Beginning with the very first Concours international de piano d’Orléans in 1994, works by Xenakis, Ligeti and Messiaen have been performed side by side with those of Debussy, Casella and Fauré. The biennial competition is devoted wholly to the repertoire from 1900 to the present, with no aesthetic censorship whatsoever and with artistic quality as its sole aim. From its third occurrence forward, the competition has had the privilege of awarding a composition prize: the Prix André Chevillion–Yvonne Bonnaud. This prize, granted under the aegis of the Fondation de France, is awarded to a work by a candidate pianist who is also a composer or to an unpublished piece that has never been performed in public and was commissioned by the candidate to a pianist composer. The award was introduced in order to encourage artistic encounters and research within contemporary music, and to push our candidates to engage with the composers of today. The award immediately achieved distinction for its excellence, as evidenced by the first-year recipient: Unsuk Chin, a Korean composer of great reputation, whose studies now form an integral part of the repertoire for any pianist who addresses today’s music.

Due to its specificity in regards to contemporary repertoire, the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition has asked the International piano competition of Orléans to create a selection of a short piano pieces, written between 2000 and 2022, to be integrated into its 64rd competition program. This collaboration came about in 2017 thanks to the World Federation of International Music Competitions, an institution that brings the world’s most prestigious competitions together and thus makes these exchanges possible. For logistical reasons, the list comprises works for acoustic, unprepared piano, without the aid of electronics; the works were selected from amongst those submitted to the competition in past years, those recorded and subsequently performed at concerts given by our laureates and those nominated for our Chevillion–Bonnaud composition prize. We also selected the commissions that the International piano competition of Orléans and the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition did the last years. In our selection, we tried to provide a tableau as international and diverse as possible, which reflects today’s piano scene.

To all of the pianists who take on the challenge of this musical adventure in discovery of sound: Good luck! And to the Busoni Competition: We hope that the 64rd competition will be as memorable as always. The 16th Concours international de piano d’Orléans will take place in 2024, it will be our 30^th anniversary edition; the rules and regulations will be posted on our website by March 2023.

Isabella Vasilotta
Concours international de piano d’Orléans – France
Artistic Director

Throughout his lifetime, Ferruccio Busoni was a trailblazer – a pioneer in search of the new and the unexplored. In this sense he never viewed piano activity as an end in itself, but rather as a tool that furthers experimentation. The Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition not only affords contemporary music its due regard, but also selects its repertoire in keeping with Busoni’s penchant. Thanks to a fruitful collaboration with the International piano competition of Orléans (France), which dedicates itself with the utmost professionalism to contemporary piano music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the 33 finalists of the 63rd Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition will be able to choose from 11 new works for solo piano that offer a wide aesthetic variety and an array of technical challenges. Handling repertoire that embraces the many facets of that which is contemporary is a fundamental trait for any performer at the apex of his or her day. This collaboration with the Competition of Orléans is an important first step towards this way.

Peter Paul Kainrath
Concorso Pianistico Internazionale Ferruccio Busoni
Artistic Director