What are your favorite competition performances?

It's sad that once you are mid 20's you are already considered old by piano competitions and that the age limit is capped at 30 for most big ones. This means that only those who advance when very young stand a chance to kickstart an international career and that most competition winners are young prodigies with perfect techniques whilst those who are older, have lived more of life, are more musically and emotionally developed and mature as a person often miss the boat.

These are my two cents on piano competitions. Specially for hardworking but bitter pianists that are discouraged by the insane amount of level displayed these days. This will be blunt but necessary: You are trapped in your own ego and it needs to die (Totally agree with Sergey). The worst thing you could do if you are overwhelmed with negative emotions is runing away from them. I'd say: go to competitions, even if you are doing them for the "wrong" reasons. Let 17 year old youngsters play immensely better than you and watch how they are praised above you. Watch how they have a 10x bigger repertoire and they learn 3x faster. This is the only way to destroy your ego and accept the emotions. Keep exposing yourself to these situations WITHOUT running away and reassuring yourself until your brain is tired of feeling "defeated". THEN, you will be in a good place to decide what to do with your life, and hopefully have a healthier relationship with piano playing and music :)

Competition piano technicians have a unique perspective on this topic.

Is there a video that explains how these competitions work? How many pieces are played, over how many days? Does everyone here everyone else's performance? Does the jury provide any official justification as to the scores? Is there a score system? Do the jury deliberate together, or do they decide individually? Who chooses the music? Also, how many bananas are consumed?

I think there's too much emphasis on winning. I went to a piano scholarship competition at a local university in California a couple years ago, and even the 'least' advanced players were very good and playing very difficult pieces. And playing them beautifully. But smiles weren't frequent. Instead of being fun, it was a pressure cooker. One Asian girl played beautifully but didn't win first, second or third place, and she was literally in tears afterwards. There's something messed up about that. And the differences between the winners and 'losers' was so small and so nebulous that I wondered if the jurors maybe just flipped coins. I had the honor of meeting Claire Huangci briefly after a concert she gave in Costa Mesa, California, a couple years ago, and she was very nice. She even gave me a couple pointers (I'm a piano major in college). And she played beautifully, of course. There needs to be some sort of paradigm shift away from the pressure cooker environment and elitist snobbery that has plagued the classical music field for sooooooo long. These gifted and dedicated people are playing the most sophisticated, advanced piano works in human history, and to even be doing it at all, at such a high level, should be celebrated rather than subject to ranking and awards that essentially dismiss all but the most fortunate few.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="83">1:23</a> "tbh i would love to dodge the question of competitions" is crazy

Competition is one of the greatest way to introduce yourself public/impresarios and other greatest pianist, which helps you to reach the goals, what every single musician would like to do.

I’m an architect. So professionally I’m also involved in competitions all the time. The best analogy I’ve ever heard was that you don’t do competitions to win. You do them to keep fit. It’s like going to a gym to work out, so you’re in shape for the time a real job comes around.

There is a parallel story to the ones told here in piano competition. In the 2024 Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition, a 17-year-old Chinese girl from a vocational high school ranked 12th on the finalist list of 801, sparking heated discussion on Chinese social media. The competition is open to everyone, including many AI programs from universities. Jiang Ping is a 17 year fashion design student, heading to the finals for the Alibaba math contest soon. What is shocking is that she has been self-studying math for just 2 years, with some guidance from her math teacher. She beats out hundreds of others from around the world, like MIT, Cambridge, CalTech. She studies math for the FUN of solving math problems. The open competition unearthed this rare math talent. Would competition destroy her fun in math?

Thank you so much for this episode. As a pianist who has been participating in competition, I have the utmost empathy for all my colleagues, as competitions are so gruelling, even the small ones. I like what Nicolas said, to find the right competition for you. I find myself playing the repertoire that the audience and I enjoyed, yet the results didn’t turn out to be the way we wanted. I agree with the panel that we should play the repertoire we enjoy playing, and also to strive for how we want to play our pieces, that I will not feel bad afterwards even if I didn’t win.

Hi Nicolas, I just wanted to say that your speech made me breathe a sigh of relief, like the fact that before the Honens you participated very few competitions. (<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="265">4:25</a>) You also said that during your Juilliard years you decided to stop competing and develop new repertoire/improve your technique. My question is, have you set yourself a list of pieces to practice and learn before being confident to comeback competing? For example learn all Chopin etudes... or more than just 2 Beethoven sonatas😅, well tempered klavier... I hope this makes sense Ps. I would really appreciate a response from anyone reading, not just the great pianists interviewed in this video. Loved the video btw, hoping for a part2 🙏👍

I was put in piano competitions ever since I was a child and it messed me up so bad. Now I feel like I am being judged on every move and I developed massive stage fright. I only enjoy playing if I play for myself.

This reminds me so much of the sport of body building. It’s so intangible and often relying on minor incremental improvements (with some obvious exceptions like the guy in thumbnail pic).

Yes, by all means let's hear from some jury members, although I don't believe that they will confess readily to their biases.

I'm up for a part 2.

yes you should totally do a pt 2 :)))

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="84">1:24</a> “And, even our favorite competition superstar, Yunchan Lim, seemed a bit indifferent about the topic.” Perhaps a bit more than indifferent. According to the _NYT,_ Lim was reticent to participate in the Cliburn but his teacher, Minsoo Sohn, prevailed upon him to do so-“‘I thought the world needed to listen to what Yunchan could play in his teenage years,’ Sohn said,” quoting directly from the _NYT_ article-saying “Think of it as a performance, not a competition.” (On the other hand, Lim _had_ participated in three competitions prior to the Cliburn so it’s a fair question as to just how opposed to them, generally, he really is.)

In 7th grade in 1963 was required to take class called “Music Appreciation” for 4.5 months. The final was the teacher placing the needle on a record of a classical piece for only 10 seconds of over 50 pieces my grade was 100% of which I cannot live without classical music as I also learned from my parents the love of the “Big Bands” and jazz. I couldn’t live without hearing and the genius of Beethoven composing when deftness brings immense sobbing then Mozart dies far too early was a great crime for humanity. The Schiller Institute is trying to bring peace to the world through revival of classical music and poetry.

Performance competitions are pretty common in most musical traditions, not just classical. Think cutting sessions in jazz, rap battles, drum battles, etc. - but classical competitions do have a distinction of how extensive the "battles" can get. In a jazz cutting session, if you didn't make your point in about 30 seconds or so, you've lost.

Another thought....I enjoy hearing who won the Audience Prize especially if it is not the winner of the Gold! To me, this outcome speaks volumes!

Recorded, I believe on a music series called "Living the Classical Life" an interview with Gary Graffman (Curtis Piano Faculty) mentioned that he would not let two of his students, Yuja Wang and Lang Lang, participate in piano competitions ; after a brief silence he added "..because they didn't have too". Draw your own conclusions!!

Yes, that sounds exciting :) (The idea for part II)

Thank you for this video! I am looking forward to seeing the 2nd video! I have also question - why the competitions are only for people under 30-32 years old (approximately)? And could we have another possibilities to build our career instead of a competition? Or maybe do we have already?

Piano competitions are a whole lot like auditioning for symphonies. Only one can remain. That person is then welcomed into the musical world with open arms.

Musik und Wettbewerb schließt sich für mich inhaltlich aus. Weil Musik subjektiv, individuell, Kunst ist. Kunst kann man nicht nach neutralen Kriterien bewerten, auf höchstem Level gibt es kein besser oder schlechter, nur andere Interpretationsvorschläge. Ich finde das so absurd.

If piano competitions prove anything, it's only that the Guiness Book of World Records is a history of art. Which it is not.

About 2 months ago, I finished the first ballade by Chopin. It took me over 3 months, and it was a joy to learn. I played it at my school competition, having the confidence to play such a piece in public. However, I was very upset to find that I was beat by someone who played Chopins op 9 no 2, the famous nocturne. It was very upsetting for me as I am an incredibly competitive person with the goal to do one thing. Win. However, it was such a marvellous experience to play this piece of music, and I was 15 years old.

The general audience wants to expierence a firework. But most of the music is not about virtuosity. Competitions do not help in this situation.

Which Chopin piece is this

Love the movie , The Competition.

My 1st piano teacher used to enter me- i hated it. Its horrible

They have an age limit most of them.

Piano competitions are all politics. It really does not matter what you do if the finalists are already essentially pre-selected. If your teacher knows the judges. The networking and the school and country from which you come. They are unrealistic and quite absurd, and there is very little musicality on display: all technique, volume and speed.

It's incredible how all these smart guys have totally no humbleness, except maybe the Russian guy (which is kind of amazing, knowing the pepole).

I love music and art which is why im subscribed to this channel but hmm competitions are for horses?Horses are forced to compete literally to their death! Nobody should be forced to compete, least of all these non human animals who can't consent. Please DONT make assumptions that non human animals are here for human entertainment. What is the point of attaining great art and creating beautiful music if we act worse than cavemen when it comes to ethics against the most defenseless beings?

I wonder if he's murdered him...?! I mean, the other guy....Other guy, if you're reading this please post on here so we know you're OK...some of us are considering contacting the authorities...I really, really miss the other guy!

Another great video from Tone base. However, as a student of a teacher from the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky line, I'd take issue re. the great Lim - I prefer Kempf. And I prefer Poon over Wang. Here's my video about which contemporary pianists are good and which - maybe not so good in my opinion: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fNunmstqmMW1YJ8.html

imagine Marta would go to competition -)

Bela Bartok was born when women werent even allowed to vote in most places around the world and the concept of human rights remained alien for most people let alone animal rights. Quoting these people from another era as if opporessing animals merely fir entertainment is totally okay today is misguided. Not only are horses often ridden to death (every major horse races have their casualties who are then shot to death if not already dead) but those who grow old and slow are most often simply sold to be horse meat. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THEUR SUFFERING LIGHTLY just because it's still a part of our "culture". If there are unwatchable suffering of victims are involved this damn culture MUST change.

But classical music is dead...what the win

I always love Tonebase’s content but I want to suggest that you all pay more attention to your production values. The host - does he have a beard or not? And the split screen with the aggressive nodding is just kind of annoying. Attention to camera angles and appearance of those being interviewed should be scrutinized a bit more because it’s looking pretty amateur to have somebody unshaved with bed head in a sweatshirt or someone looking down at their computer on the floor.

There's something terribly wrong with your audio! Frequently there is a crashing noise or whooshing that is frighteningly startling. Please see what you can to to make it stop. Because if you can't, I'll not watch your videos any more. Thank you.