Anyone going to this competition for "outstanding amateurs" in April in Paris?

I am coming from the US to compete!

Anyone else here coming or know about the competition much?

I had hoped to, but unfortunately I am going to be in Australia at the time. The finals are on my Birthday (not that it matters as I'd have to bribe all the judges to get past the prelims)


Good luck. Please keep us informed


The website
covers most things. I like that there is no age limit. I am actually living in Utrecht - the home of the Liszt competition - but I can't take part because the age limit is 29.

Yes, one of the jurors of the Liszt Competition and her assistant was my teacher in high school. But she kicked me out right before I was going to apply to the Juilliard School. Now you obviously know who that is.

I am still trying to figure out whether I should play Liszt ballade #2, islamey, or La Valse in the first round?

I was going to play Islamey but I am leaning more toward Liszt Ballade #2.

It is just like islamey is a big etude, if something happens with the piano and absolutely clarity does not come out, I feel like I will be screwed. But I do play it well. They may also complain the piece is "non-musical."

It is 10-minute time limit.

Or I would play bach and islamey, but I am not sure.

Do you think the liszt balllade #2 is a wiser choice than either of the two other pieces?

Any of them serves to demonstrate superb agility (and stamina!) at the keyboard. Personally - for something to listen to as well as to marvel at - I much prefer Islamei to Liszt's Ballade No 2. I don't think the Ballade really works as a piece of music and all those Left Hand chromatic runs just get boring. Mind you - I can't play either of them - and for the amount of effort it would take to learn them - not to mention the risk of never actually managing to play them well enough - I'd rather invest it in a Beethoven sonata or two.

Perhaps the judges would be more impressed by something that requires less in the way of gymnastics, but played really, really well, like a Bach Prelude and Fuge, or a Chopin nocturne or two, or a few Debussy preludes, or even a set of variations by Mozart?

I also have the following pieces, but they could be played in subsequent rounds:

Ballade by Gabriel Faure (I was told not to play this until the later rounds)

Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue by Franck (which is WAY over 10 minutes but was going to be used later)

and the A-major prelude and fugue from WTC I (which is only about 3 minutes, a rather short piece)

Yes, in this competition, a lot of people try to play programs which I bet they cannot handle. I have the book from last year, and one guy did not get through and programmed the entire Chopin etudes from Op. 10!
And someone else tried to play the Kriesleriana which is probably the most mature of Schumann's works.

The person who won played the Liszt Legende #2 which is sort of similar to the Ballade in a way. He was a bit heavy, but was just technically very good. You can find him if you search youtube. Masanori Murakami as keyword in youtube and it will pop up.

Also, you can put in the third prize winner Jamie Ng. Again her Jeux d'eau was quite heavy but accurately played.

So it looks like they like technically solid playing in this competition at least.


I was trying to go into this competition to show an affinity for French piano music with three major, but very different French works.

I am just afraid they are going to have an aversion to someone trying to play a very difficult program, even if it is very convincing. Yet, I treated this like I was preparing an hour of music for the Van Cliburn competition but with a twist toward French composers.

I do have a very interesting interpretation of the Liszt!

With them choosing only 18 people to advance, it is hard to figure out what to play, especially when the only requirement is to play in the program somewhere, one piece by Bach. It would be much easier to judge if there was a set program, I believe.


Anyway, there is an amateur competition in the UK called Yamaha, which I cannot enter (I am US citizen) But one of the finalists, Rupert Egerton-Smith from UK, also was 2nd prize winner two years ago.
You can find his performance of the complete Gaspard and Islamey at the boston amateur competition at youtube uner bostonpianoamateurs.

I guess I will listen to the other competitors (I play like #91 out of the 100 contestants in the preliminaries) and see what everyone else's strengths and weaknesses are. And then go from there. We can change what we are playing even write before we play.










Basically, that lady who judges the Liszt competition, just counts technical mistakes. She even makes you SUPERARTICULATE notes, and play super loud and fast. You have to try to play like Horowitz for her, and make no mistakes. Unfortunately, usually the tone becomes harsh because you are trying to give so much superarticulation.

When she kicked me out, she had a Russian student come in, play the Dante Sonata at the loudest and fastest speed possible with no mistakes and then said see that: you have to play this way to go to THIS PLACE.

So she seems to think music IS A SPORT.

Ugh. I think playing music is about self-transcendence. So neither the program nor the judges matter.

My advice is to play (I'm quoting Philip Barford here) "the inner vibration of the thought between the notes" of some technically simple but musically genius-level composition - if you can!!- followed by technical bravura if **you yourself** are really into bravura as a form of self-expression. Then at least you get something out of it for yourself.

Well, I won first prize at the concerto competittion at the New England Conservatory of Music in my second year, but then decided to study statistics and I am 4th year PhD student in North Carolina. But this was not like the story from the movie Shine, where David Helfgott had a breakdown after winning the concerto competition at the Royal College of Music with Rachmaninov Third! It was a conscious and well-thought out decision on my part. Who was Cyril Smith, his teacher at RCM, anyway?

I decided that I wanted to have family some day, so I wanted to get a secure job. However, right now, everyone else married around me, and it is even very hard to find girlfriend in US. I do not know about UK, but I heard that many divorces take place over there as well. I am quite discouraged here about trying to find a prospective wife. And no one interested in art or music here, and everyone is so materialistic. It is quite apathetic. I would not mind going to Asia or Europe to seek a wife out. My graduate school is filled with half Chinese students and their marriages seem absolutely perfect. Same thing with the Vietnamese friends I know. Why can't people in the US get this right?

Well, I had a change of heart about a year ago. I was perfecting my repertoire at a very high level on my own, from my experience of training from several teachers before (Elena Tatulyan, Oxana Yablonskaya (she did not like me at the time), and Russell Sherman). So I went back to repertoire that I had played earlier, and added the Liszt, Faure, and Ravel (which were learned within this year). And then I looked at amateur competitions. I cannot do the Van Cliburn amateurs because the lower age limit is 35 and I am 27. There was another competition in Colorado Springs, but then I figured that it would cost the same amount to go there as to go to Paris. And then there is a tiny Chopin amateur competition in Houston, Texas. So my parents had great reservations about me going to this competition, but I decided why not? I feel that it is good to take a chance and play. At worst, I get to go to Paris, which I have never been to before.

If I do not do well, of course I will be disappointed. But at least I am not pressured into having to win a prize for my career.

In fact when I was in high school, I once thought about doing the ABRSM exams (in 1996 or so). At this time, they were relatively new in the US, and most people did not hear of them. I had a friend who was born in Hong Kong who knew about these exams, and he was getting distinction all the time. And I did not think his playing was at a higher level than mine. But then I found a previous examiner and Florida, and she did not like me too much either. I played more advanced pieces not on any of the lists for her. And then I also remember that I somehow obtained an Old Grade 5 theory paper from this friend, and timed myself under conditions. I was very disappointed when she graded it and I only got 62 and I remember the passing was 70. I got so many points off on the melody, as I did not understand what they wanted. I went to New England Conservatory, and received all A's and A-'s in my music history / music theory classes. So I did know it well. Maybe I just did not know how these exams were graded since the US and UK systems are indeed quite different.

I am also thinking about (ahem) taking Grade 5 theory now! I am more nervous in these exams about the theory and mostly what they look for in the aural. I just feel that I am at a disadvantage due to a very different system, but I would order the books before taking the exams. I would like to prove this examiner wrong 12 years later!

Well, back to my internship, dissertation, and preparation for the amateur competition in Paris!

That is my story!

It might not be that your Chinese friends' marriages are any more perfect than in the USA or UK. It could be they are just more likely to stick with things perfect or not, rather than separate.

Maybe you should leave the wooden club at home when you go out wife hunting?! That can be a real turn off

This sounds exciting! Is this competition open to spectators? I'd love to go along and listen. And speaking of Utrecht, I drove through there yesterday on my way back from Amsterdam.

Yes, it is. I will forward all of the information to you. I am going for sure.

Let me know next time you are passing through. I'll take you to a concert - there is usually one happening somewhere.

May just do that, although it's not a regular thing for me, so it may well be in 10 years time!

I was the second place!!!!

I played La Valse Ravel and Prelude, chorale, and fugue by Franck in the finals at Sorbonne University.

One of the press jury was from the Pianists-Yamaha competition in UK.



For more information, about this competition, go to www.pianoamateurs.com

I find myself holidaying in the Netherlands this year (a friend lives in Eindhoven). I plan to have a nosey around for a week-10 days at the end of July, early August. I understand that there is a chamber music festival in Amsterdam early August. But I'd love to know of anything else going on. I want as much exposure as possible to piano piano piano piano

Very well done. I was going to go but unfortunately it clashed with having a friend over to stay so it wasn't possible.

Well done, cdpiano!

Did you win a prize? Has anyone asked you to play in a concert? And did you like Paris?

Sincere congratulations

Tom