Piano 2010

From 3 May to 14 June 2010

Under the patronage of H.M. Queen Fabiola

The 16th edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition to be devoted to the piano offers an opportunity to attract new, talented young musicians to Brussels. Since Leon Fleisher, in 1952, the Competition’s enthusiastic audience has shared moments of great emotion with first prize-winners like Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrei Nikolsky, Frank Braley, Severin von Eckardstein, and Anna Vinnitskaya ; the new cycle means that fascinating discoveries of this kind now come to us every three years.

The task facing the international jury at its meeting in Brussels in February to view DVDs submitted from all over the world is a crucial one : that of drawing up the list of candidates to be admitted to the Competition’s public rounds. The number of candidates admitted may vary, not just according to their artistic level, but also in the light of the availability of each to actually attend the Competition in May.

In addition to a Mozart concerto accompanied by the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, conducted by Paul Goodwin, the 24 pianists admitted to the semi-final will each perform one of the two recitals they have themselves devised. In the final, the National Orchestra of Belgium will be conducted by American conductor Marin Alsop at the Brussels Centre for Fine Arts.

This year’s compulsory solo work for the semi-final was commissioned from Jean-Luc Fafchamps ; the unpublished work to be performed in the final, with orchestra, was chosen through the International Composition Competition, whose eminent jury met in Brussels last autumn.

As every year, it is with great pleasure that we invite you to attend the master classes given at the MIM by four members of the jury, each an extraordinary artist ; their talents both as musicians and as teachers make these truly rewarding occasions.

From June on, a number of laureates’ concerts, as well as the 3-CD box set, will make it possible to prolong the pleasure of these great musical moments.

Once again, our country’s public broadcasting services, both radio and television, will ensure – including via the Internet, thanks to the assistance of Belgacom – that the discovery of the most promising young musicians of their generation, performing an extremely varied repertoire, will be shared with a much wider audience.