International Chopin Competition to present competitors on Chopin-era pianos

Warsaw’s Fryderyk Chopin Institute will next month present the International Chopin Competition. Running from 5 to 15 October 2023, the competition will be held in the Warsaw Philharmonic and will include pianos from Chopin’s own time on which the composer himself may have played when creating his works.

Following an inaugural concert on 5 October, the competition’s two stages will run from 6 to 11 October before the finalists perform with Orchestra in performances from 13 to 14 October. Participants who make it to the final will have the opportunity to compete for a first prize of €25,000, a €20,000 second prize, and a third prize of €15,000, performing for a jury made up of pianists, performers and experts including Paolo Giacometti, Yves Henry, Tobias Koch, Václav Luks, Janusz Olejniczak, Olga Pashchenko, Ewa Pobłocka, Andreas Staier and Wojciech Świtała.

All performances will be given on historical instruments from the Chopin Institute’s Collections or on new concert instruments built by piano maker Paul McNulty to imitate those of Chopin's time. These include copies of pianos by makers including Conrad Graf, Fryderyk Buchholtz of Warsaw, Pleyel, which would have been familiar to Chopin. You can find a full list of the pianos set to be used in this year’s competition here.