International Piano-e-Competition Announces Field of 24 Competitors for 2004

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (April 23, 2004) — The International Piano-e-Competition has announced the slate of 24 young musical artists who will compete for top honors from May 25 to June 5 at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. Representing 15 nationalities and ranging in age from 15 to 32, the competitors will vie to succeed Mei-Ting Sun, who won the first International Piano-e-Competition in 2002 at age 21.

The complete list of contestants is attached. More information about each artist, and about the competition itself, is available online at www.piano-e-competition.com.

"The first International Piano-e-Competition in 2002 was a wonderful experience, and with the quality of young artists in this year's competition, we look forward to matching that success at a minimum," says competition founder, president and artistic director Alexander Braginsky.

The biennial event is distinguished for both its quality and its technical sophistication. International authority Gustav Alink ranked the inaugural International Piano-e-Competition among the top 30 piano competitions in the world in his book Piano Competitions Worldwide.

What makes it completely unique, however, is the ability of Yamaha Disklavier technology to record and later transmit the competitors' performances over the Internet. The Disklavier is a concert-quality piano with a built-in system to record live performances as MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) data and recreate them from disk using the same hammers and strings a live artist plays, with every nuance delivered faithfully.

This method was used to select the 24 final contestants from 60 artists who were invited, based upon performance recordings at live screening auditions in December 2003 in Hamamatsu, Japan; Paris, France; Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY.

The contestants' audition performances were digitally videotaped and recorded as MIDI data on a Yamaha Disklavier concert grand piano at each of the respective audition sites. In early January 2004, a six-member screening panel judged the contestants' performances using another Disklavier and a large projection video screen at Sundin Hall at Hamline University in Minneapolis, where the Recital and Final Rounds will take place this spring. This is the first time in the history of piano competitions that a screening round was successfully completed with the "live" contestants not actually present.

In addition, members of the general public will be able to download and hear the Audition, Recital and Final Round performances as MIDI files on their own computers from the e-competition home page. In the final round of the 2002 competition, acclaimed pianist Yefim Bronfman even participated as a remote "e-judge" from Tokyo, Japan using this method.

This year's jury for the Recital and Final Rounds in Minneapolis-St. Paul will be chaired by Menahem Pressler of the United States, and will include Dmitri Bashkirov of Russia, Gyorgy Sandor of the U.S., Sontraud Speidel of Germany, Maria Tipo of Italy, Dubravka Tomsic of Slovenia and Liqing Yang of China.

In addition to a cash award of $25,000, the first-prize winner of this year's International Piano-e-Competition will receive a Yamaha DC3A 6' 1" Disklavier polished ebony grand piano, a Spring 2005 New York City Debut Recital at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center sponsored by Yamaha Corporation of America, a CD issued on the Ten Thousand Lakes label, a Yamaha PianoSoft recording for the Yamaha Disklavier reproducing piano and engagements with the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert in Chicago, IL; the Minnesota Orchestra; the Schubert Club and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. The second- through sixth-prize winners will receive cash prizes as well.

Two years after the 2002 competition, its participants continue to make their mark around the world. After a busy international touring schedule, Sun returned to Hamline University's Sundin Music Hall in St. Paul, MN for a benefit concert on March 5, 2004. Petronel Malan, a special prize winner in the 2002 competition, was recently nominated for three Grammy® Awards, including Best Solo Album.

For more information about Yamaha pianos, write Yamaha Corporation of America, Piano Division, P.O. Box 6600, Buena Park, CA 90622; telephone (714) 522-9011; e-mail infostation@yamaha.com.