International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs
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The International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs (French: Concours des Grands Amateurs de Piano), is a piano competition for amateur pianists, held in Paris, France. It has been held annually since 1989. The competition is widely considered to be one of the top-level competitions for amateur musicians in the world.[1] [2]
Concept
Created in 1989 by Gérard Bekerman, professor of economics at the university and a graduate of the Paris School of Music, the International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs is designed for top-level amateurs. They come from all walks of life – doctors, office workers, lawyers, students, pensioners, engineers, and many others. The contestant's minimum age should be 18; there is no upper age limit.
This unique Competition has met with considerable success over the years, attracting hundreds of candidates from more than 50 countries worldwide. They love to meet in Paris in the congenial atmosphere of piano enthusiasts from every corner of the globe. One of the basic principles of the Competition is the free choice of programme. There are no set pieces. The aim is not to limit the candidates, but to discover the works of musicians of their own choosing. Gérard Bekerman, the founder of the Competition, claims that in Paris, the desire to "win" is outweighed by the love of music: "Pianists discover that the Competition for Outstanding Amateurs is not a competition but an "anti-competition". There are no opponents, no competitors, no judges, just music lovers".[3]
The competition is held in 3 rounds:
- Preliminaries: candidate’s choice (10 minutes)
- Semi-finals: a work by Bach and a romantic composition (15 minutes)
- Finals: free program (30 minutes)
10 semi-finalists and 5 finalists are selected each year.
Level
The originality of the Competition lies in the fact that the competitors are not amateurs in the sense of "dabblers", but pianists, "who don’t just play the piano", musicians who, at some time in their lives, have had to make a choice, often a difficult one, between their profession and their potential career as a concert performer, the choice between making a living and their love of music.[4]
As a result, the level of the contestants is very high. Many of them are real virtuosi: pianists often choose technically tough pieces by Liszt, Chopin or Rachmaninoff for their repertoire.[5]
The winners have been invited to play with orchestral backing in the Sorbonne in Paris, under the baton of Georges Prêtre and the American conductor George Pehlivanian and, more recently, with the Symphony Orchestra of the Republican Guard of Paris directed by François Boulanger and the orchestra of the Paris Conservatorium of Music conducted by Pierre-Michel Durand. Many award winners have been invited to play at the "Les Amateurs!" festival, one of the most significant festivals for amateur pianists held all over the world.[6]
Jury
Each year, the panel of judges consists of well-known pianists and key personalities: Idil Biret, Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux, Anne Queffelec, Sabine Lacoarret, Germaine Devèze, François-René Dûchable, Marc Laforet, Aldo Ciccolini, Michel Dalberto, Jay Gottlieb, Alexis Weissenberg, Marc-Olivier Dupin, Eric Heidsick, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Dominique Merlet, Siheng Song, Michel Beroff, Nella Rubinstein and so on.
A second "press panel" consists of more than twenty music critics representing both the main European dailies and the national and international media.
Finally, there is an "audience award" which is given to the amateur pianist who has the most votes from the audience, collected at the final round of the competition.
Prize winners
| No. | Year | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Press award | Audience award |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| XX | 2009 |  Rupert Egerton-Smith (Lawyer)
|
 Dmytro Vynohradov (Airline manager)
|
 Romaine Coharde (Meteorological engineer)
|
Romaine Coharde (Meteorological engineer)
|
Rupert Egerton-Smith (Lawyer)
|
| XXI | 2010 | Loïc Lafontaine (Assistant manager)
|
 Michael Cheung (Management consultant)
|
Daniel Chow (Chartered accountant)
|
Loïc Lafontaine (Assistant manager)
|
Loïc Lafontaine (Assistant manager)
|
| XXII | 2011 | Simon Grisdale (Interpreter)
|
Claire Rocher (Mathematician)
|
 Gorden Cheng (Financial analyst)
|
Simon Grisdale (Interpreter)
|
Robin Stephenson (Mathematician)
|
| XXIII | 2012 | Dominic Piers Smith (Race car designer)
|
 Kensucke Ota (Physician)
|
 Ricker Choi (Financial analyst)
|
Dominic Piers Smith (Race car designer)
|
Dominic Piers Smith (Race car designer)
|
| XXIV | 2013 | Sylvain Carpentier (Mathematician)
|
 Paolo Gilardi (Phycologist)
|
 Jeremy Mätzener (Law student)
|
Sylvain Carpentier (Mathematician)
|
Sylvain Carpentier (Mathematician)
|
| XXV | 2014 | Antoine Moreau (Manager)
|
Thomas Prat (Quantitative analyst)
|
 Mikhail Dubov Jr. (Software engineer)
|
Mikhail Dubov Jr. (Software engineer)
|
Thomas Prat (Quantitative analyst)
|
References
- ^ Competition report in the International Piano Magazine, accessed 5 January 2015.
- ^ Putting the Amour Back in Amateur, Colorado Springs Independent, accessed 3 February 2015.
- ^ Website of the International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, accessed 5 January 2015.
- ^ Interview with Gérard Bekerman the "Crescendo" magazine, accessed 3 February 2015.
- ^ Competition report in the https://www.pianistmagazine.com/ "Pianist" magazine], accessed 3 February 2015.
- ^ Website of the "Les Amateurs!" piano festival, accessed 3 February 2015.