Honens announces 2009 Winners

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Honens International Piano Competition announces Laureates and prizewinners

CALGARY, AB, November 6, 2009 – William Aide, Chairman of the Honens Jury, announced tonight the Laureates and prizewinners of the Sixth Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary. First Laureate is Georgy Tchaidze, 21, (Russia), Second Laureate is Evgeny Starodubtsev, 27, (Russia), and Third Laureate is Gilles Vonsattel, 28, (Switzerland). 

“The outstanding concerto performances by the Honens finalists have made the jury’s decision all the more difficult,” says Aide. “Our three Laureates demonstrate the artistic conviction Honens seeks in its search for the ‘Complete Artist’.”

In addition to more than $100,000 CAN in cash prizes, Honens awards its three Competition Laureates one of the competition world’s most lucrative career development prizes valued at more than $500,000.  This three-year program, which prepares the laureates for the rigours and realities of a professional music career, includes international engagements, presentation of debuts in essential career-building markets, production of recordings, residencies at The Banff Centre, media training, networking opportunities with presenters and artist managers, and mentoring and coaching.  The program is customized to each laureate’s needs, regardless of Competition ranking.

During the Awards Ceremony, Nexen Inc. announced it would again be the Presenting Sponsor of the Seventh Honens International Piano Competition, October 18 to November 3, 2012.

Honens International Piano Competition is among the world’s most prestigious events of its kind.  It searches the world to discover “Complete Artists” – 21^st century musicians for 21^stcentury audiences.  The Sixth International Piano Competition, was presented by Nexen Inc., and supported by Steinway & Sons, Irene Besse Keyboards Ltd, Macleod Dixon LLP, TransAlta and Enbridge Inc. For more information visit honens.com.

Minsoo Sohn | New York Concert | 8 Octoer 2009

MINSOO SOHN, FIRST LAUREATE OF THE 2006

HONENS INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION,

MAKES HIS WEILL RECITAL HALL AT CARNEGIE HALL DEBUT THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2009, 8 P.M.

WORKS BY KIRCHNER, BEETHOVEN, AND LISZT; AND TRANSCRIPTIONS OF BEETHOVEN, SCHUBERT AND MOZART

Minsoo Sohn, the First Laureate of the 2006 Honens International Piano Competition, will make his Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall debut in a solo recital on Thursday, October 8, 2009, 8 p.m.

The recital, presented by the Honens International Piano Competition, will feature Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Leon Kirchner's Interlude II as well as Liszt's transcriptions of works by Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart.

In addition to winning the Honens International Piano Competition, Mr. Sohn was a top prizewinner at the Rubinstein, Cleveland, Busoni and Hilton Head International Piano Competitions, and received laureate prizes at Belgium's Queen Elisabeth and Santander's Paloma O'Shea Competitions. He has performed in recital halls, at festivals, and with orchestra across North America and Europe.

The Weill Hall program is highly personal to Mr. Sohn: "From my earliest years at the conservatory, I had a tremendous love for the Diabelli Variations without fully understanding the greatness of the composition. I later came to understand this as a triumphant and comprehensive representation of Beethoven's ingenious writing for piano. This musical journey confronts matters of life and death in a most genuine way, but always with humor and love. In some ways, this music is reflective of my life as well; through its ups and downs, it has endured, restoring the spirit of music within me."

William Aide, Chairman of the Fifth Honens International Piano Competition, speaks to Mr. Sohn's artistry: "Minsoo Sohn is an artist of Olympian magnitude. To the Diabelli and Goldberg Variations he brings a structural clarity and an expansive range of dramatic characterization. His Liszt is unsurpassable in its lyric refinement and sonic splendor, qualities reminiscent of great Lisztians of the past, such as Egon Petri and Grigory Ginzburg.

The complete program is as follows:

Kirchner Interlude II

Beethoven 33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Op. 120

Intermission

Beethoven-Liszt Adelaïde, S.466

Schubert-Listz Gretchen am Spinnrade, S. 558 No. 8

Schubert-Liszt Der Müller und der Bach, S. 565

Mozart-Liszt Réminiscences de Don Juan, S. 418

Tickets for the October 8 recital are $18 to $25, students and seniors $10 and available online at www.carnegiehall.org, or by telephone at Carnegie Charge: (212) 247-7800, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office Box Office: 57^th Street and Seventh Avenue.

About Minsoo Sohn

The First Laureate of Canada's Honens International Piano Competition (2006), Sohn's masterful technique and astonishing artistic expression create performances rich in deep emotion and musical intelligence. His extraordinary interpretation of Bach's Goldberg Variations from the Honens Competition has been broadcast numerous times on the CBC and across the United States on NPR's Performance Today.

Minsoo Sohn was born in Korea and began piano studies at age three. One of his earliest inspirations was Henryk Szeryng's legendary recording of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin. While the violin first captured his attention, he grew to appreciate the piano's many voices and tonal colors. It wasn't until Sohn moved to Boston to study with Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun at the New England Conservatory of Music that he was reassured of his career as a concert artist. "I just wasn't sure I would be a musician," he says. "I had interests in many fields and stopped playing. I even dreamed of being an athlete."

Last season, Sohn performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, was part of the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, and was soloist with the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec. His first CD – a disc of Liszt transcriptions and études – was released last fall.

When not sitting at the piano, Sohn can be found watching his beloved Red Sox.

About the Honens International Piano Competition

Founded in 1992, Honens International Piano Competition is one of the world's great music competitions. It is known for its pursuit of the "complete artist" – not only an accomplished soloist, but a musician whose interpretations reflect a wide cultural context, whose well-balanced programs are designed with knowledge and imagination, and who excels in chamber and ensemble performance. Every three years, 21 pianists between the ages of 20 and 30, from all parts of the globe, compete for more than $100,000 CAD (approximately $90,000 USD) in cash prizes, including a comprehensive three-season Artistic and Career Development Program for the laureates, preparing the for the rigors and realities of a professional life in music. This includes arranging performance engagements, production of recordings, residencies at The Banff Centre, promotional and publicity support, professional development opportunities for self-management, and networking opportunities with presenters and artist managers.

Honens searches for musicians whose talent, in the credo of the Competition, "inspires the heart and engages the intellect," whose understanding of his or her art will stem not only from knowledge of a particular composition itself but also from a wide knowledge of related music, of musical literature as a whole, of the other arts, the humanities, and of contemporary culture. Honens is not a series of tests, but rather, a compelling festival of music.

Past Honens Laureates include Maxim Philippov who, in June, 2001, won the Silver Medal at the Van Cliburn Competition; Albert Tiu, who won Juilliard's prestigious William Petschek Award, giving him a debut recital at Alice Tully Hall; Sergei Babayan, appointed Artist-in-Residence at The Cleveland Institute of Music, who founded the Sergei Babayan International Piano Academy in Cleveland and his own chamber music festival in Mexico (Babayan has recorded on the Connoisseur Society, Propiano and Discover International labels); Krzysztof Jablonski, who has recorded two CDs as part of the Polish National Edition of the complete works of Chopin (he has recorded 14 more CDs in Germany, Japan and Poland); Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, who has recorded several CDs of music by Haydn, Schumann, Ohana, Debussy and Chopin, the complete piano works of Ravel, and the recently critically acclaimed complete piano works of Debussy on the Chandos label (he has been nominated Professor-for-Life at the Detmold Hochschule in Germany); 2003 Laureate Winston Choi, Head of Piano Studies at Chicago's Roosevelt University, whose debut CD of the complete piano works of Elliott Carter received rave reviews, and whose CD of the music of Jacques Lenot was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque de l'Académie Charles Cros; Xiang Zou, 2003 First Laureate, who teaches at the Central Conservatory in Beijing; and Honens 2000 First Laureate, Katherine Chi.

The Competition is named for Esther Honens, born in Pittsburgh and educated in Calgary, who became a successful businesswoman. She married John Hillier, who died in the 1970s, then Harold Honens, with whom she developed real estate holdings in Calgary. In 1991, Esther Honens made a capital gift to establish the international piano competition. She died five days after the first competition in 1992. After five competitions, Honens has distinguished itself as one of the most prominent competitions of its kind, worldwide. Additional information is available on-line at www.honens.com.

Honens International Piano Competition

TWENTY-ONE PIANISTS FROM 12 NATIONS TO COMPETE IN THE SIXTH HONENS INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION

CALGARY, AB, June 18, 2009 – Today, Honens announced the names of the 21 Quarterfinalists to compete in the Sixth Honens International Piano Competition, which takes place in Calgary, October 22 to November 6, 2009. The pianists come from 12 nations: Canada, China, Hong Kong, Israel, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States.

"Honens continues to attract some of the top young talent from around the world," says Angela Cheng, Chairwoman of the Honens First Jury. "We have selected an incredibly strong group of pianists to advance to the Quarterfinals."

The Honens First Jury selected the 21 Quarterfinalists after a week of deliberations earlier this month at the Banff Centre. Pianists Angela Cheng, Katherine Chi (2000 Honens First Laureate), Matthias Kirschnereit and Ronan O'Hora reviewed 90-videotaped performances from the Competition's first public stage that took place in Calgary, New York and Munich earlier this spring.

"The 21 pianists are musicians one wants to hear again and again," says Stephen McHolm, Honens Executive Director. "They truly represent the kind of complete artist we aim to discover."

The 21 Quarterfinalists include 17 men and 4 women: Michael Brown (from the United States, residing in New York), Michael Bukhman (from Israel, residing in New York), Yunjie Chen (from China, residing in New York), Yue Chu (from China, residing in Chestnut Hill, MA), Ran Dank (from Israel, residing in New York), Jonathan Floril (from Ecuador/Spain, residing in New York), Stanislav Khristenko (from Russia, residing in Oberlin, Ohio), Sangyoung Kim (from South Korea, residing in Boston), Natacha Kudritskaya (from the Ukraine, residing in France), Alexey Lebedev (from Russia, residing in Germany), Ka-ling Colleen Lee (from Hong Kong, residing in Germany) , Soyeon Lee (from South Korea, residing in Princeton, NJ), Misha Namirovsky (from Israel, residing in Germany), Tom Poster (from the United Kingdom, residing in the United Kingdom), Evgeny Starodubtsev from Russia, residing in Russia), Georgy Tchaidze (from Russia, residing in Russia), Gilles Vonsattel (from Switzerland, residing in New York), Daniel Wnukowski (from Canada, residing in the United Kingdom), Chun-Chieh Yen (from Taiwan, residing in Los Angeles), Feng Zhang (from China, residing in China), and Kirill Zwegintsov (from the Ukraine, residing in Switzerland).

Pianists compete for more than $100,000 CAN in cash prizes and one of the competition world's most lucrative career development programs valued at more than $500,000.

Each pianist will perform two recitals in the Competition Quarterfinals (October 22 to 28): a 50-minute solo recital that includes a new work by Canadian composer Brian Current; and a second 40-minute concert for violin and piano with violinist Tereza Stanislav. Twelve pianists move on to the Semifinals (October 30 to November 1) to perform 65-minute recitals that include ten minutes of art song / lieder with Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux. Five finalists perform with Austrian conductor Christoph Campestrini and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (November 5 and 6). The prizewinners will be announced on November 6, 2009.

Tickets range from $12 to $85 and are available by calling (403) 299-0140 or online at honens.com.

About Honens

Honens International Piano Competition is among the world's most prestigious events of its kind. It searches the world to discover "Complete Artists" – 21^st century musicians for 21^st century audiences. The Sixth International Piano Competition, presented by Nexen Inc., and supported by Steinway & Sons, Irene Besse Keyboards Ltd, Macleod Dixon LLP, TransAlta and Enbridge Inc., takes place in Calgary, October 22 to November 6, 2009. For more information visit www.honens.com.

24 Canadian pianists ready to compete in prestigious Honens International Piano Competition

The world’s next generation of concert pianists take part in Honens Stage One

Stage One of the Sixth Honens International Piano Competition gets underway with recitals in Calgary (March 21), New York (March 26-31), and Munich (April 25–27). Ninety-three concert pianists hailing from 26 countries will each perform a 40-minute solo recital before a live audience in one of the three concert venues: Calgary’s Rozsa Centre, New York City’s Peter Norton Symphony Space or Munich’s Gasteig.

A total of 24 Canadians will participate in the competition: Michael Berkovsky (Toronto ON), Maxim Bernard (Quebec City QC), Tiffany Butt (North Vancouver BC), Sheng Cai (Toronto ON), Sonia Chan (Toronto ON), Tina Chong (Banff AB), Dmitri Levkovich (Toronto ON), Ang Li (Toronto ON),
Scott Meek (Winnipeg MB), Christopher Miranda (Mississauga ON), Eldon Ng (Toronto ON),
Ilya Poletaev (Toronto ON), Sergei Saratovsky (Vancouver BC), Elizabeth Schumann (LaSalle QC),
Isaac Seo (Toronto ON), Benjamin Smith (Chatham ON), Jean-Philippe Sylvestre (Ste-Julie QC),
Wayne Weng (Vancouver BC), Daniel Wnukowski (Windsor ON), Irene Wong (Mississauga ON),
Todd Yaniw (Edmonton AB), Zhenya Yesmanovich (Toronto ON), Avan Yu (Vancouver BC), and Darrett Zusko (Windsor ON).

All performances will be recorded on digital video by the Honens recording team, which consists of an audio-visual engineer and a Honens representative, who ensure that the conditions are as uniform as possible and note the state of instruments, the acoustical qualities of the performance rooms, and any unusual circumstances. The Stage One performances will be reviewed by the First Jury in June and 21 pianists will be selected to advance to the Quarterfinals in Calgary. Members of the First Jury are Angela Cheng, Chairwoman (Canada), Katherine Chi (First Laureate 2000 Honens International Competition; Canada), Matthias Kirschnereit (Germany), and Ronan O’Hora (United Kingdom).

In Canada, Stage One recitals will take place at the University of Calgary’s Rozsa Centre on Saturday, March 21 at 10 am, 2 pm and 7 pm, and feature performances by twelve pianists from seven countries. Tickets to each session are $10 or $25 for a day-pass and are available through the Honens Box Office by calling 403 299 0140 or online at honens.com. For a detailed performance schedule visit honens.com.

The triennial Honens International Piano Competition, founded in 1992, is ranked among the world’s greatest music competitions. It is unique in its mission to find the “complete artist” – one who possesses technical mastery as well as expressiveness in a wide range of musical forms and styles, and whose music-making possesses imagination, innovation and relevance in today’s world. The Sixth Honens Competition takes place in Calgary, October 22 to November 6, 2009. It is presented by Nexen Inc. and supported by Steinway & Sons, Irene Besse Keyboards Ltd., MacLeod Dixon LLP, Enbridge Inc., and TransAlta. For more information about Honens, please visit honens.com.

Honens and CPO present North American premiere of Mendelssohn's Third Piano Concerto

Honens International Piano Competition and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra present North American Premiere of Mendelssohn’s Third Piano Concerto

CALGARY, AB January 30, 2009 – Honens International Piano Competition and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra celebrate Mendelssohn’s 200^th birthday with the North American premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 3 in E minor. The concert takes place on Monday, May 11, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. at Jack Singer Concert Hall, EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts (205 Eighth Avenue SE).

Left unfinished at the prolific composer’s death in 1847, the score was completed and reconstructed by composer/conductor Marcello Bufalini for exclusive performance by Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda. Prosseda came across the incomplete manuscript at the Bodleian Library in Oxford in 2006 and urged Bufalini, a respected Mendelssohn scholar, to bring his considerable knowledge of the composer’s style to the task of assembling a reconstruction from the sketches. The process involved deciphering the manuscript which consisted of the solo piano part and the piano sketch of the orchestra score; completing the orchestration, and writing the Finale based upon the autograph melodic sketches.

Julian Kuerti conducts the all-Mendelssohn program, which also includes the Hebrides Overture Op. 26 (Fingal’s Cave) and Sinfonia for String Orchestra No. 10 in B minor. Roberto Prosseda will be joined by his wife Alessandra Maria Ammara (2000 Honens Laureate) to perform the Concerto for Two Pianos in E major.

Tickets are $28 to $85 and are available by calling (403) 571-0849 or online at cpo-live.com. For more information visit honens.com or cpo-live.com.

Honens Concerts Presenting Sponsor: TD Waterhouse

Calgary Philharmonic Season Sponsors: Calgary Herald and Nexen Inc.

-more-

About Honens

Honens, Canada’s leading presenter of music for piano, produces more than 100 concerts and events across Canada and internationally each year. The triennial Honens International Piano Competition, founded in 1992, is ranked among the world’s greatest music competitions. It is unique in its mission to find the “complete artist” – one who possesses technical mastery as well as expressiveness in a wide range of musical forms and style, and whose music-making possesses imagination, innovation and relevance in today’s world. The sixth Honens Competition takes place in Calgary from October 22 to November 6, 2009.

About the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra

The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) was formed in 1955 through the amalgamation of the Calgary Symphony and the Alberta Philharmonic. Today the CPO is one of North America’s finest and most versatile orchestras presenting world leading artists and a wonderful range of genres. The CPO’s innovative style excites, entertains and inspires music lovers of all ages.