The first competitor to perform in the Fourth International Maj Lind Piano Competition (17–31 August 2017) is Tarmo Peltokoski (Finland). He will begin the first round at 10.00 on 18 August and be followed by Kausikan Rajeshkumar (Great Britain) and Victoria Audrey Sarasvathi (Indonesia). There are 37 competitors in all and ten first round sessions. 14 pianists will be selected to go through to the second round and their names will be announced after the last first-round performance on Tuesday evening, 22 August. The competition will be held at the Helsinki Music Centre.
The order of performance was decided by lot at the Helsinki Music Centre on 17 August. The pianist whose name was drawn by Tarmo Peltokoski will perform first, and the others will follow in alphabetical order.
Altogether 37 pianists will take part in the Fourth International Maj Lind Piano Competition to be held in Helsinki, Finland on 17–31 August 2017. They represent 15 nationalities: South Korea (6 competitors), Finland (6), United States (5), Russia (4), China (2), Germany (3), Indonesia (2), Israel (2), Italy (1), Spain (1), Great Britain (1), Canada (1), Norway (1), Ukraine (1) and New Zealand (1).
The first and second rounds will be streamed to the lower foyer of the Helsinki Music Centre (1st floor European style). The first and second rounds will begin at 10.00 and 17.00 in the Camerata Hall from August 18 to August 22. Admission to the lower foyer is free.
FIRST ROUND (1–10)
Helsinki Music Centre, Camerata Hall
Friday 18 Aug
FIRST ROUND 1
at 10.00–12.45 (intermission at 11.30–12.00)
10.00 Peltokoski, Tarmo (Finland)
10.45 Rajeshkumar, Kausikan (Great Britain)
12.00 Sarasvathi, Victoria Audrey (Indonesia)
FIRST ROUND 2
at 17.00–20.30 (intermission at 18.30–19.00)
17.00 Stasevskij, Justas (Finland)
17.45 Strogiy, Ruslan (Russia)
19.00 Suh, Hans H. (South Korea)
19.45 Söderström, Fanny (Finland)
Saturday 19 Aug
FIRST ROUND 3
at 10.00–13.30 (intermission at 11.30–12.00)
10.00 Taratushkin, Mark (Russia)
10.45 Vorotnaya, Anastasia (Russia)
12.00 Wong, Evan (United States)
12.45 Yulin, Maria (Israel)
FIRST ROUND 4
at 17.00–20.30 (intermission at 18.30–19.00)
17.00 Zaitsev, Aleksei (Finland)
17.45 Zhang, Fifi (United States)
19.00 Alasaarela, Hannu (Finland)
19.45 An, Tianxu (China)
Sunday 20 Aug
FIRST ROUND 5
at 10.00–13.30 (intermission at 11.30–12.00)
10.00 Bouterey-Ishido, Jun (New Zealand)
10.45 Carr, Joachim (Norway)
12.00 David, Isabelle (Canada)
12.45 Grinshtein, Natanel (Israel)
FIRST ROUND 6
at 17.00–20.30 (intermission at 18.30–19.00)
17.00 Hanßen, Knut (Germany)
17.45 Hartono, Anthony (Indonesia)
19.00 In, So Hyang (South Korea)
19.45 Jalkanen, Väinö (Finland)
Monday 21 Aug
FIRST ROUND 7
at 10.00–13.30 (intermission at 11.30–12.00)
10.00 Kim, Jiyoung (South Korea)
10.45 Kim, Jun Ho (South Korea)
12.00 Kim, Yedam (South Korea)
12.45 Klein, Kathrin Isabelle (Germany)
FIRST ROUND 8
at 17.00–20.30 (intermission at 18.30–19.00)
17.00 Klimo, Peter (United States)
17.45 Lapaz Lombardo Enrique (Spain)
19.00 Lasaracina, Viviana Pia (Italy)
19.45 Li, Zhenni (China)
Tuesday 22 Aug
FIRST ROUND 9
at 10.00–11.30 (intermission at 12.00–12.45)
10.00 Lopatynskyi, Roman (Ukraine)
10.45 Melemed, Mackenzie (United States)
12.00 Orth, Kyle (United States)
FIRST ROUND 10
at 17.00–19.45 (intermission at 18.30–19.00)
17.00 Pan, Anke (Germany)
17.45 Park, Hyo-Eun (South Korea)
19.00 Parkhomenko, Daria (Russia)
The repertoire for the first round is as stated in the rules. Details of competitors’ elective works will be posted on the competition website and in the printed concert programme.
The programme for the first round must not exceed 45 minutes. Repertoire:
1) A prelude and fugue by J.S. Bach; the competitor may also add other music composed before 1750
2) An entire work by Dussek, Haydn, Clementi, Mozart, Beethoven, Hummel or Schubert, lasting at least 10 minutes
3) Three etudes, one from each of the following groups:
a. Chopin
b. Liszt, Alkan, Saint-Saëns, Rachmaninov, Scriabin; alternatively, a toccata by Czerny or Schumann
c. An etude composed in the 20th or 21st century, excluding the composers mentioned in the group above; alternatively, a toccata by Debussy, Ravel or Prokofiev
4) A freely chosen programme of music composed in 1965 or later
There will be three rounds in the competition, all public events. The first round will be held on 18–22 August (Helsinki Music Centre, Camerata Hall), the second on 24–25 August (Camerata Hall) and the finals on 27–31 August (Concert Hall): the chamber music finals on 27 August and orchestral finals on 30–31 August. The prizes will be awarded after the finals on 31 August.
The work commissioned for the competition – Arabesques et adages – was composed by Kaija Saariaho and is an elective work in the second round. Competitors may, in the second round, alternatively play a work composed by the competitor, or improvise for not more than 10 minutes on a theme devised by Jukka Nykänen and issued 20 minutes beforehand.
The quartets in the chamber music finals will be the Tempera and the New Helsinki. The orchestra in the finals will be the Helsinki Philharmonic conducted by Anna-Maria Helsing.
The competition jury will have eight members: Dmitri Bashkirov, Dang Thai Son, Janina Fialkowska, Ralf Gothóni, Ewa Kupiec, Alberto Nosè, Roland Pöntinen and Dina Yoffe.
The first prize is worth €30,000, the second €25,000 and the third €20,000. The other three finalists will each receive a consolation prize of €8,000. Special prizes totalling €10,500 will also be awarded, and the winner will give a solo recital at the PianoEspoo festival on 9 November 2017.
The whole competition will be streamed worldwide by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) and broadcast in Finland on Yle Radio 1 and the Teema & Fem TV channel.
The competition received a record 195 applications by the deadline on 24 April. The participants in the first round were selected by a competition team on the basis of video recordings. The competition is open to pianists the world over born in or after 1987, regardless of nationality.
The competition is being organised by the University of the Arts Helsinki, the Sibelius Academy, and financed by the Sibelius Academy Foundation out of the Maj Lind Fund. Tickets are on sale at Ticketmaster.
