The 12 candidates of the 2nd phase of the Competition

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 – 1st Round

Movement
This round explores portrayals and imaginations of movement through sound. The Prelude creates an effect of something flickering, shimmering sporadically in a vast darkness while the repeated C#-D is a menacing omnipresence. The atmosphere shifts ever so slightly and an unseen presence is intensely felt in the momentary stillness of Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen and Yet Have Believed. In the Etude Op. 65 No. 3 which follows, its character alternates between dancelike leaps and grand gestures, and there is barely time to catch one’s breath before “Vertige” takes a dizzying chromatic spiral downward into what seems like eternity. Then, La Valse emerges, the dancers’ skirts twirling away as the floor disintegrates, and all that is left in the end is the cold, relentless and mechanical: Toccata.

Programme – 1st Round

Kaija Saariaho, Prelude (2006)
Zekun Ji, Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen and Yet Have Believed (2026),
André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize
Alexander Scriabin, Etude Op. 65 (1912):
No. 3
György Ligeti, Etudes for Piano, Volume II (1990):
No.9 –  Vertige
Maurice Ravel, La Valse (1920)
Sergei Prokofiev, Toccata (1912)

Watch here the video of her first round

Note of intent – 2nd Round

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 – 2nd Round

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

Note of intent – Semi Final

Hyperstage

The tracing and examination of an onstage identity.

Impromptu on a Theme of Beijing Opera conjures up scenes from The Drunken Concubine: the vibrant costumes, painted faces, and dramatic characters of a bygone era; a familiar tune that exists somewhere among the fragments of my childhood memories, reimagined on this instrument of wood and steel. In a flurry of movement, we stumble into the world of Chout, the grotesque and humorous tale of a buffoon. His identity is distorted, questioned, hidden: a lit fuse. It ultimately explodes in the lost, wandering repetitions of Confetti Variations, a spectacle that gradually dissolves into calm.

Programme – Semi Final

Guohui Ye, Impromptu on a Theme of Beijing Opera
Prix des Compositeurs du Conservatoire de Shanghai
Sergei Prokofiev / Vladimir Soultanov, Eight Movements from the Ballet « Chout » :
1. Le Bouffon et sa Bouffonne
2. Chez les 7 bouffons
3. Danse des bouffonnes
4. Danse des filles des bouffons
5. Entrée du marchand et son accueil
6. Dans la chambre à coucher du marchand
7. La querelle du bouffon avec le marchand
8. Danse finale
Tom Lopez, Confetti Variations – (pour piano et électronique)

Note of intent – Final

What Is Music?

The question lingers, flickering at the edges of three works that challenge the confines of the piano itself and the limits of our listening: a carefully crafted cacophony, myriad rays of light piercing the sky in the descent of an angel, our chance encounters forming a portrait of “now”. What may initially appear strange, disorienting, or even abrasive reveals unexpected forms of beauty through sustained attention.

Programme – Final

Thomas Adès, Concerto conciso 
Yoshihiro Kanno, The Remains of the Light III « Angel’s Ladder » 
Michelle Agnes Magalhaes, Portland Sonata

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 – 1st Round

This programme reflects my focus on French piano repertoire and on works that broaden the instrument’s expressive range. Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales embodies what I consider the French idea of “raffiné”: clarity, elegance, and balanced colour. Messiaen represents another central pillar of modern French music. The études by Scriabin and Ligeti both move beyond virtuosity, exploring new harmonic and rhythmic perspectives. Finally, Ji-Young Lee’s Objet dissous concentrates on resonance and pedal techniques, offering a contemporary approach to the piano’s sonic possibilities.

Programme – 1st Round

György Ligeti, Etudes for piano, Volume II  (1985):
No.4 – Fanfare
Ji-Young Lee, Objet dissous (2025),
André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize
Maurice Ravel, Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911)
Alexander Scriabin, Etude Op. 8 (1894):
No.10 – Allegro
Olivier Messiaen, Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus (1944):
X. Regard de l’Esprit de joie

Watch here the video of her first round

Note of intent – 2nd Round

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 – 2nd Round

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 

Note of intent – Semi Final

The works in this programme share a particular attention to sound and musical construction. Despite their very different musical languages, Adès, Yun and Crumb each develop unique relationships between texture, gesture and form. In Klavierstück IX, Stockhausen creates a large-scale structure built from the interaction of repetition, resonance and temporal perception.

Programme – Semi Final

Thomas Adès, Mazurkas for Piano 
Isang Yun, Interludium A 
Prix Isang Yun
George Crumb, Five Pieces for Piano 
Karlheinz Stockhausen, Klavierstücke IX 

Note of intent – Final

This programme focuses on three contrasting conceptions of musical structure and sound. Adès’s Concerto conciso combines clarity of design with virtuosic energy. Furrer’s Studie IV develops a concentrated musical discourse in which timbre and gesture play a central structural role. In Incises, Boulez achieves an exceptional synthesis of formal precision, sonic richness and instrumental brilliance.

Programme – Final

Thomas Adès, Concerto conciso 
Beat Furrer, Studie IV 
Pierre Boulez, Incises 

Biography

Born in 1994 in Taipei, Taiwan, Shan-Chi Hsu studied with Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, where she earned a Master’s degree in Contemporary Piano Music, as well as at the HMTM Hannover with Bernd Goetzke, completing with a Konzertexamen diploma. She was selected as a pianist for the International Ensemble Modern Akademie 2023/24 and Ulysses Ensemble 2026. Shan-Chi is a recipient of the #MusikerZukunft scholarship from the Deutsche Orchester-Stiftung, the Scholarship for Contemporary Music from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, and the Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Award for Interpreters of Contemporary Music with her co-founded trio Track3. She has performed at major festivals including Lucerne Festival, ManiFeste (IRCAM), Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Gaudeamus Festival, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Impuls Festival, and has worked with ensembles such as Ensemble Modern and Ensemble Intercontemporain, as well as composers including Marco Stroppa, Mark Andre, Márton Illés, and Franck Bedrossian. She currently resides in Germany.

Note of intent – 1st Round

This round explores two complementary approaches to piano music. Debussy’s Estampes, Ligeti’s White on White, and the André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize piece by Maria Vittoria Agresti transform external ideas — landscapes, imagery, and painting — into musical color, gesture, and narrative. Furrer’s Studie für Klavier and André’s Contrapunctus on the other hand focus on the piano’s material possibilities, shaping resonance, articulation, and texture to create carefully defined sound worlds. The program highlights how composers can translate external inspiration into music or work directly with sound and gesture to explore the piano’s expressive potential.

Programme – 1st Round

Beat Furrer, Studie für Klavier (1989)
Maria Vittoria Agresti, Ardesia (2026),
André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize 
Claude Debussy, Estampes (1904)
I. Pagodes
II. La soirée dans Grenade
III. Jardins sous la pluie
György Ligeti, Etudes for Piano, Volume III (1995):
No. 15 ‘White on White’
Mark Andre, Contrapunctus (1998/99)

Watch here the video of her first round

Note of intent – 2nd Round

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 – 2nd Round

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

Note of intent – Semi Final

Interwoven with the three movements of Elliott Carter’s Tri-Tribute, this programme explores a wide spectrum of contemporary pianistic expression. Donatoni’s Rima unfolds through a succession of brief, energetic gestures, its musical ideas continually transformed and recombined, while Denisov’s Signes en blanc opens a fragile world of shimmering resonance and suspended time. In Négy tárgy (“Four Objects”), Illés builds each movement around a distinct sonic or pianistic object, exploring the musical possibilities contained within it. Olga Neuwirth’s incidendo/fluido further expands the piano through recorded Ondes Martenot, blurring the boundary between instrumental and electronic sound.

Programme – Semi Final

Márton Illés, Négy tárgy « Four Objects »
Elliott Carter, Tri-Tribute : Matribute 
Prix Elliott Carter
Franco Donatoni, Rima
Elliott Carter, Tri-Tribute : Fratribute 
Prix Elliott Carter
Edison Denisov, Signes en blanc 
Prix Edison Denisov
Elliott Carter, Tri-Tribute : Sistribute 
Prix Elliott Carter
Olga Neuwirth, incidendo/fluido (pour piano et électronique)

Note of intent – Final

Although written more than a century apart, these works explore different ways of transforming inherited musical forms. Berg’s Piano Sonata, Op. 1 unfolds as a tightly integrated single movement, generating an intensely expressive world from a small network of musical ideas through continuous processes of motivic transformation. In Concerto conciso, Thomas Adès reimagines concerto and chaconne traditions within a highly concentrated design, drawing historical forms into dialogue with a distinctive contemporary voice. Stefano Gervasoni’s Sonata per pianoforte reflects on what the sonata can mean today, reimagining its expressive and architectural possibilities through a contemporary lens.

Programme – Final

Thomas Adès, Concerto conciso 
Alban Berg, Sonate pour piano, op. 1 
Stefano Gervasoni, Sonata per pianoforte 

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 – 1st Round 

These works are united by intense emotional expression through complex textures, contrasts, and the blending of personal, musical influences, especially folk elements. Ligeti’s Automne à Varsovie juxtaposes relentless rhythmic motion with lamenting, human-like melodies forming micropolyphonic structures, building toward dramatic, almost cataclysmic climaxes. Dedicated to his Polish friends, it reflects both historical and personal struggles. Bartók’s Etude Op. 18 No. 3 similarly condenses contrasts – ballad-like lyricism, frenzied energy, humor, and dance – into a compact, intense space. Enescu’s Sonata No. 1 draws on both the vibrant Parisian musical climate of the early 20th century and Romanian folk traditions.

Programme – 1st Round

Béla Bartók, Etudes op. 18 (1918):
III. Rubato
György Ligeti, Etudes for Piano, Volume I (1985):
No.6 – Automne à Varsovie
Margot Pommellet, L’un des douze (2026),
André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize
George Enescu, Piano Sonata No. 1 in F-Sharp Minor, Op. 24 No. 1 (1924):
I. Allegro molto moderato e grave
II. Presto vivace, III. Andante molto espressivo

Watch here the video of his first round

Note of intent – 2nd Round

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 – 2nd Round

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

Note of intent – Semi Final

This programme traces a century of piano innovation through sound, texture, and perception. Debussy’s La cathédrale engloutie dissolves the familiar piano sound into submerged, fluid sonorities, imagining a cathedral rising from the sea. Alberto Posadas’ Anklänge an La cathédrale engloutie revisits this image in a contemporary idiom, using prepared piano to evoke oceanic depths and resonant echoes. Framed by two groups of Ligeti’s Études, which stand as a pinnacle of modern piano innovation, Yun’s Interludium A provides a central axis — a self-contained world of drama, melancholy, and reflection. The dramaturgy envisions Debussy’s cathedral gradually obliterated, leaving behind only its resonances and enduring spirit.

Programme – Semi Final

Claude Debussy, Préludes, Livre I : La cathédrale engloutie 
György Ligeti, Études pour piano, Livre II :
Galamb Borong
Fém
Vertige
Der Zauberlehrling 
Isang Yun, Interludium A 
Prix Isang Yun
György Ligeti, Études pour piano, Livre II :
En suspens
Entrelacs
L’escalier du diable 
Alberto Posadas, Anklänge an La cathédrale engloutie (piano préparé)

Note of intent – Final

Including Messiaen’s Cantéyodjayâ in the final round was a deliberate choice, as he remains a central figure in French modern music, inspiring generations of composers through his innovations in technique, harmony, modes, colour, and pianistic writing. The work exemplifies these innovations through its exploration of the piano’s expressive and rhythmic potential, drawing on traditional Indian rhythms and unfolding in condensed, vividly contrasted musical blocks. Aleatoric passages, rich harmonies, canonic textures, and fragmentation create a wide spectrum of characters, while recurring motifs provide cohesion.
Placed alongside Beat Furrer’s Studie IV and Thomas Adès’ Concerto conciso, Cantéyodjayâ highlights three distinct approaches to musical form, energy, and sonic imagination. Together, these works offer a compelling exploration of rhythm, colour, texture, and expressive intensity.

Programme – Final

Olivier Messiaen, Cantéyodjayâ
Beat Furrer, Studie IV 
Thomas Adès, Concerto conciso

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 – 1st Round

I am interested in the experience of different layers of time—such as memory, immediate perception, and gesture as action—coexisting within a single subject without fully aligning. This program explores various forms of asynchrony through works by Ligeti, Chin, and Enescu. Through polyrhythms, fragmented meters, and the coexistence of remembered folk material with classical forms, rhythm, gesture, and recollection never completely coincide. Each work unfolds within its own temporal framework, shaped by imperfection and multiplicity.

Programme – 1st Round

Unsuk Chin, Piano Études (2003):
No. 5 – Toccata
Yuya Haryu, Fünf Tänze (2025),
André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize
George Enescu, Piano Sonata No. 1 in F-sharp minor, Op. 24 (1924)
György Ligeti, Etudes for Piano, Volume I (1985):
No. 6 – Automne à Varsovie

Watch here the video of her first round

Note of intent – 2nd Round

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 – 2nd Round 

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

Note of intent – Semi Final

The number twenty-four carries a quiet mystery, as a day moves through twenty-four hours and music breathes through twelve major and twelve minor keys.
Among the earliest influential cycles to gather all keys into a single architecture is Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, while Chopin’s twenty-four Études later affirmed the étude as an art form in its own right.
Twenty-four evokes completion opening into renewal.
Centred on Szymanowski’s Twelve Études and interwoven with works by Lutosławski, Bartók, Boucourechliev, Debussy, Ligeti, and Satoh, this programme follows the evolution of the étude as a circular flow of time, reflecting also my own turning twenty-four this year.

Programme – Semi Final

Witold Lutosławski, Two Studies : No. 1 – 02′
Karol Szymanowski, 12 Études, op. 33 : Nos. 1 à 12 – 14’30”
Nobuaki Satoh, Étude No. 1 – 02’30”
Nobuaki Satoh, Étude No. 2 – 03′
György Ligeti, Études pour piano :
Cordes à vide
Vertige – 06’15”
Béla Bartók, Studies, op. 18 : Nos. 2 et 3 – 05′
André Boucourechliev, Six Études d’après Piranèse, op. 18 : Nos. 3 ; 4 ; 6 – 08’30”
Prix André Boucourechliev
Claude Debussy, 12 Études :
Pour les degrés chromatiques
Pour les arpèges composés – 07′

Note of intent – Final

Fragments of lost memories are always sweet, yet uncertain.
What is vague becomes idealised, and only the strongest impressions remain in history.
In old age, Koechlin looks back on the light of 1882: a small wood imagined as a dense jungle, a quiet August afternoon filled with both serenity and the ache of departure. His music reveals not the preservation of the past, but the way memory transforms it.
The works of Bobby Ge and George Crumb illuminate that distortion from opposing perspectives — like life and death.
Placed alongside Beat Furrer’s Studie IV and Thomas Adès’ Concerto conciso, these works explore different ways in which memory, imagination, and transformation shape our experience of music and time.

Programme – Final

Thomas Adès, Concerto conciso – 10′
Beat Furrer, Studie IV – 14′
Charles Koechlin, L’ancienne maison de campagne, op. 124 :
Matin dans le bois
La veille du départ – 06’30”
Bobby Ge, To the Memory of a Little Grasshopper – 06’30”
George Crumb, Makrokosmos, Vol. I :
Spring Fire
Dream Images (Love-Death Music) – 05’30”

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 – 1st Round

Metamorphoses
Harmony often seems to be an inseparable part of a musical work. Yet, if we extract a particular sonority from its context, we suddenly perceive it as a molecule of music. Before us unfolds a thousand other constructions and contexts in which it might sound — or in which it has already sounded, and we have already heard it. In this program, the final sounds of each piece are transformed into the point of departure for the next one. Listen closely to the harmony, and you will hear that every ending is not a conclusion, but a beginning. 

Programme – 1st Round

Arseniy Gusev, Retrato de Santo Tomás (d’après Velázquez) (2025),
André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize
Sergei Prokofiev, Étude Op. 2 No. 1 (1909)
Galina Ustvolskaya, Sonate No. 6 (1988)
George Crumb, Makrokosmos Vol. 1, Part One (1972) :
5. The Phantom Gondolier (Scorpio)
Alexandre Scriabin, Sonate No. 5 Op. 53 (1907)
George Crumb, Makrokosmos Vol. 1, Part One (1972) :
11. Dream Images (Gemini)
Nikolai Kapustin, Eight Concert Études Op. 40 (1984):
8. Final

Watch here the video of his first round

Note of intent – 2nd Round

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 – 2nd Round

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 » 

Note of intent – Semi Final

Personalities: Dedication, Imitation

Personality is composite.
Willingly or not, it imitates what inspires it.
Personality is multifaceted.
Consciously or not, it changes its masks and changes along with them.
Dedication is a gift.
Willingly and consciously, one personality pays tribute to another — composite and multifaceted.

Programme – Semi Final

György Ligeti, Musica Ricercata : (Béla Bartók in Memoriam) – 01’55”
Claude Debussy, Hommage à Haydn – 02’25”
Carl Vine, The Anne Landa Preludes :
Thumper
Divertissement – 03’30”
Alfred Schnittke, Variation on a Chord – 07’45”
Jonathan Harvey, Tombeau de Messiaen – 08’10” (pour piano et électronique)
Karol Szymanowski, Masques, op. 34 :
Shéhérazade
Tantris le Bouffon 
Sérénade de Don Juan – 24’45”
Kaija Saariaho, Monkey Fingers, Velvet Hand – 02’45”

Note of intent – Final

Out of Doors

Stepping into the open air, it is fascinating to realise that music is not only the sounds we produce on an instrument. The cries and chatter of children, echoes of street musicians, the splash of water from a paddle, the plaintive call of a frog at twilight by a lake, and even the pounding of one’s own heart in fear — all possess rhythm, register, and character.

Programme – Final 

Thomas Adès, Concerto conciso – 10′
Michelle Agnes Magalhaes, Portland Sonata – 16′
Béla Bartók, Out of Doors (Szabadban), Sz. 81 :
With Drums and Pipes
Barcarolla
Musettes
The Night’s Music
The Chase – 14’10”

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 – 1st Round

(Inner) wandering
A spirit of searching, of reaching for something new inspired this program. Anodos by Nicolaou opens with a rapid ascent into the highest regions of the keyboard, an impassable route. Debussy searches for new and exotic sound worlds in Estampes, transporting us to distant landscapes. Ligeti and Kagel encapsulate the restless spirit of many avant-garde composers. Saunders sets the piano as a disembodied voice on an uncertain quest. Ahmadnezhad explores light and dark as well as the inner search of doubt and faith of Saint Thomas. Finally, Furrer’s Klavierstück frames the program with a final ascent into nothingness.

Programme – 1st Round

Vassos Nicolaou, Etude no. 1 ‘Anodos’ (2008)
Claude Debussy, Estampes (1903):
I. Pagodes
II. La soirée dans Grenade
III. Jardins sous la pluie
György Ligeti, Capriccio no. 2 (1947)
Mauricio Kagel, à deux mains (1995)
Rebecca Saunders, to an utterance – study for solo piano (2020)
Arian Ahmadnezhad, That Holy Joint (A piece for the front row) (2025-26),
André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize
Beat Furrer, Drei Klavierstücke (2004):
II.

Watch here the video of his first round

Note of intent – 2nd Round

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 – 2nd Round 

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

Note of intent – Semi Final

Programme – Semi Final

Note of intent – Final

Programme – Finale

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 – 1st Round

This programme explores transformation, gesture, and resonance across the 20th and 21st centuries. Mompou’s Cant màgics presents a sequence of distilled emotional states, where silence and simplicity carry profound expressive weight. Hosokawa’s Étude II: Point and Line evokes calligraphic motion, unfolding from isolated sounds into fluid lines, while Rautavaara’s Étude No. 4, “Fourths” builds a hypnotic sound world from stark intervallic material. Ravel’s La Valse offers a virtuosic and destabilized reimagining of the waltz, spiraling from elegance into collapse. The programme concludes with Guilherme de Almeida’s Maybe Him, a meditation on the act of remembering and re-remembering, revealing how memory is continually reshaped and recalled differently.

Programme – 1st Round

Federico Mompou, Cants màgics (1919):
1. Energic
2. Obscur
3. Profond-lent
4. Misteriós
5. Calma
Einojuhani Rautavaara, Etudes Op. 42 (1969):
No. 4 – Fourths
Toshio Hosokawa, Etudes for Piano (2011-2013):
II. Point and Line
Maurice Ravel, La Valse (1920)
Guilherme de Almeida, Maybe her (2026),
André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize

Watch here the video of her first round

Note of intent – 2nd Round

Michelle Agnes Magalhaes’ Mobile (2012) opens the round with characteristic flux — sound in perpetual transformation, never settling, always becoming. Edison Denisov’s Reflets (1989) follows, casting shimmering impressionistic reflections that reveal his lyrical late modernism at its most refined. The round closes with Michaël Levinas’ Paréidolie II (2025), a brand-new work receiving its competition premiere. Levinas, long preoccupied with the relationship between sound and resonance, here opens luminous clearings — clairières — in dense sonic terrain. Together, these three works trace an arc from motion to stillness, from flux to light.

Programme – 2nd Round

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

Note of intent – Semi Final

Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata (1953) anchors this round: eleven pieces, each built on one more pitch than the last, progressing from primal obsession to rich polyphonic mastery. Elliott Carter’s two miniatures — Caténaires (2006) and Intermittences (2005) — crackle with his trademark rhythmic independence, compressing enormous energy into small frames. Between them, Mompou’s Música Callada III No. 17 offers a moment of profound interior stillness, almost motionless in its quiet devotion. The round closes with Adès’ Darknesse Visible (1992), a haunting dissolution of Dowland’s lute song Flow my tears into shadow and ambiguity.

Programme – Semi Final

György Ligeti, Musica Ricercata :
Sostenuto – Misurato – Prestissimo ;
Mesto, rigido e cerimoniale ;
Allegro con spirito ;
Tempo di valse (poco vivace – « à l’orgue de Barbarie ») ;
Rubato. Lamentoso ;
Allegro molto capriccioso ;
Cantabile, molto legato ;
Vivace. Energico ;
(Béla Bartók in Memoriam) Adagio. Mesto – Allegro maestoso ;
Vivace. Capriccioso ;
(Omaggio a Girolamo Frescobaldi) Andante misurato e tranquillo
Elliot Carter, Two Thoughts About the Piano : Canténaires 
Prix Elliott Carter
Federico Mompou – Musica Calada III No. 17, Lento 
Elliott Carter, Two Thoughts About the Piano : Intermittences 
Prix Elliott Carter
Thomas Adès, Darknesse Visible 

Note of intent – Final

The Final opens with Adès’ Concerto conciso — concentrated, brilliant, demanding complete command of texture and colour. Michelle Agnes Magalhaes’ Portland Sonata follows, an exploration of resonance and boundaries of sound. Scriabin’s Sonata No. 10 Op. 70 (1912) then ascends into the composer’s late mystical language: trills shimmer like light, harmonies dissolve at the threshold of silence. The programme closes with Moritz Eggert’s Jerusalem from the Hämmerklavier cycle (1995) — percussive, relentless, hammering with visceral physical force. Together these works demand not only technique but total artistic commitment, making the highest claims on both performer and listener.

Programme – Final

Thomas Adès, Concerto conciso
Michelle Agnes Magalhaes, Portland Sonata 
Alexander Scriabin, Sonata No. 10 Op. 70 
Moritz Eggert, Jerusalem « Hämmerklavier IX » 

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 – 1st Round 

In music, the fifth is both the simplest and the most fundamental resonance that underpins the world of sound.Beyond tonality, the interval of a fifth exists as a pure distance between two tones—like an open string, sustaining a cosmic balance.This program traces how the fifth overlaps and transforms, emerging as resonance, as structure, and as a poetic symbol.

Programme – 1st Round

Mizuki Ono, Wavering Within (2026),
André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize 
György Ligeti, Etudes for Piano, Volume I (1985):
No. 2 – Cordes à Vide
Claude Debussy, Estampes (1903)
I. Pagodes
II. La soirée dans Grenade
III. Jardins sous la pluie
Ivan Fedele, Études Australes (2003):
Ⅴ- Chionis alba
Salvatore Sciarrino, Ⅱ Sonata (1983)

Watch here the video of her first round

Note of intent – 2nd Round 

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 – 2nd Round

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

Note of intent – Semi-Final

This programme explores the piano as a source of colour, texture, pattern, and imagination. Ranging from quiet delicacy to powerful intensity, these five works create evolving soundscapes that unfold through time. Berio’s poetic miniatures, rich in sonic nuance; Watanabe’s intricate arabesques; Szymanowski’s shimmering dreamscapes; Carter’s concise musical reflections; and Xenakis’s vast and energetic sonic architectures each reveal a different facet of the instrument. Across diverse musical languages and aesthetics, these works expand our perception of the piano and its remarkable expressive possibilities.

Programme – Semi Final 

Luciano Berio, Six Encores :
Brin
Leaf
Wasserklavier
Erdenklavier
Luftklavier
Feuerklavier 
Toshiya Watanabe, Arabesque 
Elliott Carter, Two Thoughts About the Piano : Intermittences 
Prix Elliott Carter
Karol Szymanowski, Métopes, op. 29 :
Wyspa syren (« L’Île des Sirènes »)
Nauzykaa (« Nausicaa ») 
Iannis Xenakis, Evryali 
Elliott Carter, Two Thoughts About the Piano : Caténaires 
Prix Elliott Carter

Note of intent – Final

This programme brings together works from different eras and cultures that share a sensitivity to colour, memory, and quiet intensity. Homages, poetic fragments, and expansive sonic spaces resonate throughout the programme. Among them is a work inspired by the spirit of haiku, a traditional Japanese poetic form that feels especially close to me.
Toru Takemitsu’s Rain Tree Sketch II was written for a memorial concert honouring Olivier Messiaen at the 1992 Orléans International Festival of Music and stands as Takemitsu’s final work for solo piano.

Programme – Final

Thomas Adès, Concerto conciso 
Olivier Messiaen, Prélude 
Christophe Bertrand, Haïku
Stefano Gervasoni, Sonata per pianoforte 
Tōru Takemitsu, Rain Tree Sketch II « In Memoriam Olivier Messiaen » 

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 – 1st Round

Paris between 1900-1930 was the epicentre of artistic revolution. This round honours that legacy while tracing its influence across time and geography. Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit represents French impressionism at its most virtuosic – fairytales transformed into nightmarish piano writing. Ligeti’s diabolical staircase and Ho’s mischievous J6ker etude prove that the virtuosic spirit born in Belle Époque Paris continues to inspire composers decades later. Fabregas’s Mirage and Cai’s Lumière et ténèbres – exploring doubt, enlightenment, and spiritual transformation – demonstrate how diverse voices continue to expand the expressive possibilities pioneered in that revolutionary era.

Programme – 1st Round

Elisenda Fabregas, Mirage (1997)
Yuncong Cai, Lumière et ténèbres (2025),
André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize
Maurice Ravel, Gaspard de la nuit (1908):
III. Scarbo
György Ligeti, Etudes for Piano, Volume II (1994):
No. 13 – L’escalier du diable
Vincent Ho, Supervillain Etudes, Vol. 2 (2023):
No. 6 J6ker

Watch here the video of her first round

Note of intent – 2nd Round 

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 – 2nd Round 

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 

Note of intent – Semi Final 

Architectures of Sound

In this round, four composers construct distinct sonic edifices. Dutilleux’s youthful sonata opens with epic, bell-like variations on a chorale theme, constructing a neoclassical cathedral. Ueda’s where poppies still bloom and fall builds a monument in the spirit of remembrance and renewal. Southam’s Glass Houses No. 5 assembles transparent minimalist structures in which repetition becomes a form of hypnotic architecture. Wang’s Capriccio closes by erecting bridges between Chinese melodic foundations and Western virtuoso traditions. Each work organises time and sound into a unique space, shaped by its own materials, blueprints, and philosophy of how music structures our experience of the world.

Programme – Semi Final

Henri Dutilleux, Sonate pour piano, op. 1 : Choral et variations 
Rita Ueda, where poppies still bloom and fall :
Voices in the Wind
Lark
Phoenix
Dove
(pour piano et électronique)
Ann Southam, Glass Houses : No. 5 
Jianzhong Wang, Capriccio 
Prix des Compositeurs du Conservatoire de Shanghai

Note of intent – Final

Dialogues and Distances

The concerto tradition is founded on dialogue: between soloist and ensemble, individual and collective. This final round presents three distinct perspectives on musical conversation and form.
Gervasoni’s Sonata enters into dialogue across centuries with the traditions of Beethoven, Schubert, and Liszt through a deeply personal single-movement journey of extraordinary poetic depth, in which form is felt rather than calculated.
Two movements from Debussy’s Images follow, highlighting homage and motion — honouring tradition while propelling it forward.
Adès’s Concerto conciso closes the programme by distilling dialogue to its most concentrated essence. Together, these works affirm music’s capacity to bridge distances — geographical, cultural, and temporal — proving that conversation, and the deep listening it demands, remains one of music’s most profound revelations.

Programme – Final

Stefano Gervasoni, Sonata per pianoforte 
Claude Debussy, Images, 1re série :
Hommage à Rameau
Mouvement
Thomas Adès, Concerto conciso

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 – 1st Round

The etude transcends mere technical exercise—it becomes a laboratory for extreme emotional states. From Debussy’s impressionistic colors through Messiaen’s ecstatic fire to Ligeti’s autumnal melancholy, this program explores how each etude pushes its own boundaries. Abrahamsen distills childhood memories, Dusapin compresses sound to implosion, Nicolaou poses the existential question: “Are you afraid?” Each piece drives a technical idea—fifths, fourths, octaves—into emotional extremes. The etude becomes a seismograph of inner landscapes, where virtuosity and vulnerability merge into one.

Programme – 1st Round 

Claude Debussy, Etudes (1915):
No.1 – “Pour le cinq doigts”
No.3 –  “Pour les quartes”
No.5 –  “Pour les octaves”
Pascal Dusapin, Etude 6 (2000)
Hans Abrahamsen, Etudes (1984 – 1998):
VI. For the children
VIII. Rivière D’oubli
György Ligeti, Etudes for Piano, Volume I (1985):
No. 6 –  Automne à Varsovie
Haru Shionoya, Étude pour piano – Jeu[x] de tierce (2026),
André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize
Vassos Nicolaou, Etude, Hast du Angst? (2013)
Olivier Messiaen, Etude (1950) :
No.2 – “Ile de feu 2”

Watch here the video of his first round

Note of intent – 2nd Round

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 – 2nd Round

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

Note of intent – Semi Final

The Images That Remain

This round is about the sadness of things passing. What remains as a shadow or an echo is also what has already disappeared. Ravel’s sad birds sing, and each call returns more softly, fading into the heat of noon — present and vanishing at once. Saunders writes with shadow: we hear each sound through the silence that gradually absorbs it. Denisov leaves faint traces on white, like footprints in snow already beginning to melt. Jarrell gives the round its title — the music departs, but the image remains. A chaconne is a pattern that repeats beneath everything; Gubaidulina takes what remains of that ancient form and writes a new music over it, allowing the past to show through the present. Five ways of holding on to something that has already gone.

Programme – Semi Final

Maurice Ravel, Miroirs : Oiseaux tristes
Rebecca Saunders, shadow 
Edison Denisov, Signes en blanc 
Prix Edison Denisov
Michael Jarrell, …mais les images restent… 
Sofia Gubaidulina, Chaconne

Note of intent – Final

Through Him

My musical life grew from two roots: polyphony and new music — the fugue and the music of my own time. This final round allows them to meet. Messiaen’s Par lui tout a été fait is a vast fugue, many voices unfolding from a single line: the oldest form I love, written in a modern language. Around it, Adès and Furrer speak the language of contemporary music, treating the piano as something to be tested, challenged, and pushed to its limits. The fugue has accompanied me from the beginning; here it resonates among the music of my own time, and for me these are not two worlds but one.

Programme – Final

Thomas Adès, Concerto conciso 
Beat Furrer, Studie IV 
Olivier Messiaen, Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus : Regard XI « Par lui tout a été fait » 

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 – 1st Round

This program traces a development from Romantic virtuosity toward contemporary sonic reflection. The etudes of Scriabin and Szymanowski combine technical brilliance with expressive intensity, opening a dialogue between tradition and innovation. Granados’ Goyescas expands this space through harmonic richness, narrative gesture, and vivid color. Nemtsov’s Zwanzig Skizzen and Staud’s Bewegungen further reinterpret pianistic gesture in a fragmented and modernized form. The result is a field of tension between emotion, elegance, rhythmic vitality, and abstract texture—a journey that leads from lyrical expression to a more distilled and contemporary musical presence.

Programme – 1st Round

Sarah Nemtsov, Zwanzig Skizzen (2005):
No. 1, 7, 8, 12, 13, 16, 17, 19, 20
Enrique Granados, Goyescas (1911):
No. 5 “ El amor y La Muerte”
Periklis Sdravopoulos, Lance (2026),
André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize
Karol Szymanowski, Etude Op. 4 (1900-1902):
No. 1
Johannes Maria Staud, Bewegungen (1996)
Alexander Scriabin, Etude Op. 8 (1895):
No. 10

Watch here the video of her first round

Note of intent – 2nd Round

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 – 2nd Round

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)

Note of intent – Semi Final

The semi-final explores different ways of transforming sound into meaning. Messiaen’s L’Alouette calandrelle combines meticulous observation of nature with a distinctive rhythmic and harmonic language. Denisov’s Reflets creates a world of shifting reflections, subtle colours, and delicate sonic interplay. Prokofiev’s Sixth Sonata concludes the programme with dramatic intensity, sharp contrasts, and powerful rhythmic drive. Together, these works trace a path from sonic imagination and poetic contemplation to profound human expression, highlighting the richness and diversity of twentieth-century musical thought.

Programme – Semi Final

Olivier Messiaen, Catalogue d’oiseaux : L’Alouette calandrelle 
Edison Denisov, Reflets 
Prix Edison Denisov
Sergueï Prokofiev, Sonate pour piano n° 6 en la majeur, op. 82 

Note of intent – Final

The final round focuses on contemporary modes of expression and the continuation of musical tradition. Adès’s Concerto conciso and Mazurkas reimagine traditional forms through inventive rhythmic logic, transformed dance gestures, and virtuosic colour, expanding familiar musical conventions in original ways. Gervasoni’s Sonata offers a contrasting perspective, in which lyrical fragments are repeatedly interrupted, mechanically reiterated, and gradually accelerated, creating a distinctive tension between expressive beauty, irony, and absurdity. This round provides a synthesis of historical influence and expanded sonic language, reflecting an open and forward-looking musical perspective.

Programme – Final 

Stefano Gervasoni, Sonata per pianoforte
Thomas Adès, Mazurkas for Piano, op. 27 
Thomas Adès, Concerto conciso