International Tchaikovsky Competition, The International Tchaikovsky Competition has been regarded internationally as one of the major events in the global music community for more than 50 years. Over the course of the past half century, it has continued to reaffirm itself as one of the leading opportunities for extraordinary young musicians to gain international recognition and establish their careers.
In Russia, the event is considered one of the most valuable cultural assets. Each time the Competition is held in Moscow, it becomes the most prominent event in the country’s musical life.Fulfilling its goal of discovering new talent, the competition has helped to identify, those, who over the last 50 years have become some of the world’s foremost performers......opus3artists.
Under the competition chairmanship of such luminaries as Dmitri Shostakovich and Mstislav Rostropovich, past jury members have included such legendary names as Sviatoslav Richter, Aram Khachaturian, David Oistrakh, Gregor Piatigorsky, Heinrich Neuhaus, Nadia Boulanger, Krzysztof Penderecki, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Irina Arkhipova, George London, Lev Oborin, Pierre Fournier, Maria Callas, Leonard Rose, Eugene List, Georgy Svirdov, Mario Del Monaco, Leonid Kogan, Carlo Zecchi, Joseph Szigeti, Fiorenza Cossotto, Natalia Gutman, Shlomo Mintz, Bidu Sayao and Magda Tagliaferro.
Among the competition winners who have achieved worldwide recognition are: pianists Van Cliburn, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mikhail Pletnev, Grigory Sokolov; violinists Viktor Tretiakov, Gidon Kremer, Vladimir Spivakov, Viktoria Mullova; cellists David Geringas, Nathaniel Rosen, Antonio Meneses, Natalia Gutman, Mario Brunello; and singers Evgeny Nesterenko, Paata Burchuladze, Elena Obraztsova and Deborah Voigt.
The International Tchaikovsky Competition is held once every four years. The first, in 1958, included two disciplines – piano and violin. Beginning with the second competition, in 1962, a cello category was added, and the vocal division was introduced during the third competition in 1966. In 1990, a fifth discipline was announced for the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition — a contest for violin makers which traditionally comes before the main competition.
Leading Russian orchestras are invited to perform with the finalists in the last round of the competition. Performances take place in the finest concert venues in Moscow including two halls of the Moscow Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Hall of Columns and the Moscow International House of Music. The final round of the piano competition as well as the award ceremony and the laureates’ concert are held in the Moscow Conservatory’s most prestigious concert hall—the Great Hall.
The Organizing Committee of the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition, under the leadership of Maestro Valery Gergiev, began to establish the foundation and set the highest standards for the 2011 competition. It has adopted a new set of rules and regulations, application and voting procedures and has begun the selection of jury members which is to include many of the foremost names in the music world.
