Piano Competition Rules:

1. ELIGIBILITY: Pianists of any nationality.

• Junior Division: Born on and after February 19, 2001
• Young Artist Division: Born between February 18, 2001 and February 19, 1989

              Applicants under the age of 18 at the time of the application must have a legal guardian sign the Application Form.  Contestants are required to provide government-issued photo identification document to verify date of birth when checking in at the competition.
 
2. REPERTOIRE:
  a) All works must be performed from memory.
  b) Contestant’s choice in repertoire must be music written for solo piano only.  No original compositions by the contestant or prepared-piano works are allowed.
  c) Repertoire should include pieces from at least two different periods and should be of contrasting character.
  d) Length of program:

• Junior Division: 8~12 minutes
• Young Artist Division: 15~20 minutes

  e) Both artistry and virtuosity will be taken into account by the jury. The jury may interrupt the contestant’s performance.   
 
3. APPLICATION: Complete application must include

• Application form
• Non-refundable application fee of $150
• Choice of repertoire including opus numbers and movement titles

The application fee is waived for full-time participants of the 2019 Ameri-China International New York Winter Piano Festival.
Competition time slots are limited. Early application is encouraged.  The application will be closed if the time slots are fully filled before application deadline.
 
4. SCHEDULE: The Preliminary Round will be held on February 18, 2019.  Six contestants will advance to the Final Round on February 19, 2019 and will be contacted by the committee immediately after the decision is made.  The competition results will be available on the Metropolitan International Music Festival website one hour after each round of the competition concludes.  
 
5. JURY: The jury of the competition will consist of world-renowned pianists.  The decisions made by the jury are final and are not subject to any query, review or appeal.  During the competition, contestants should not make any contact with any juror. Jury’s comments will be made available if requested on the repertoire form.
 
6. MISCELLANEOUS: All contestants are responsible for their own travel and lodging.  The competition will be open to the public. Audio/video recording is not permitted during the competition. Contestants who are late for their scheduled performing time slots will forfeit their places in the competition. If unusual circumstances prevail, the date, time, and location of the competition are subject to change.  Violation of any competition policy will result in disqualification.  
  
7. AWARDS:
All prize winners are required to attend the Concert and Award Ceremony* taking place in the evening of Wednesday, February 20, 2019 at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.   Fail to attend this event will forfeit their prizes.
Grand Prize winner will perform at this concert featuring several internationally acclaimed pianists.
Grand, Second and Third Prize winners will receive scholarship** to the 2020 Ameri-China International New York Winter Piano Festival.
  Grand Prize: USD$3,000 scholarship
  Second Prize: USD$1,500 scholarship
  Third Prize: USD$1,000 scholarship
Scholarship award is in the form of a reduction in tuition when enrolling in the program and has no cash value. In case of a tie, which the Jury will try to avoid, the winners will share the scholarship.
Other outstanding performers in the competition will be recognized and will be invited to perform at Metropolitan International Music Festival’s future concerts and events.
All six finalists will be invited to perform at the Gary Graffman Masterclass on February 19, 2019.
 
​* Each contestant is entitled to one complimentary ticket to this event.  
** Scholarship to the 2020 Ameri-China International New York Winter Piano Festival is sponsored by Kawai Piano. 

​Updated 2018.09.05

Competition Committee

Chu-Fang Huang

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Ernest Barretta

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Gary Graffman

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Apply now!

WINNERS of 2019

JUNIOR DIVISION
GRAND PRIZE  Kelly Yao Zhou
SECOND PRIZE  Shuda Zhang
THIRD PRIZE  Wanxin Li
HONORABLE MENTION  Alexander Klapowitz; Lan Wei​

YOUNG ARTIST DIVISION
 GRAND PRIZE  Beyza Yazgan
SECOND PRIZE  Albert Newberry
THIRD PRIZE  HyeYeon Kim
HONORABLE MENTION  Junwen Liang​; ChingYi Lin

WINNERS of 2018

GRAND PRIZE Rui Chi (China) & Han Wang (China)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN BACH Chen-Shen Fan
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN DEBUSSY Chenxing Huang
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN HAYDN Bokyung Hwang
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN SCRIABIN Ziyi Yang
HONORABLE MENTION Oliver Betz; Ming Jin; Mary Ogawa; Lara Saldanha

WINNERS of 2017

GRAND PRIZE  Tsuyoshi Konno (Japan)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN EARLY MUSIC   Shichao Zhang
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE IN MODERN MUSIC   Songhee Moon
HONORABLE MENTION  Siyuan Li; Yan Li

WINNERS of 2016

JUNIOR GRAND  PRIZE  Pusheng Wang
DISTINCTION  AWARD  Andrew J. Yang
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE  IN DEBUSSY  Akari Mizumoto
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE  IN RAVEL  Stephen Lee
HONORABLE MENTION  Jorge Tabares; Xiaoyi Xu;
Jingwen  Zhang; Rose Zhang; Ying Zhang

WINNERS of 2015

GRAND  PRIZE  Ziang Yin; Tianpeng Yu
DISTINCTION  AWARD  Ruobing Zhang
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE  AWARD  Zhongsan Yang; Ching Huei Li
HONORABLE MENTION  Ziyi Wang; Minjoo Choo

WINNERS of 2014

GRAND  PRIZE  Congcong Chai (China); Chang Wang (China)
DISTINCTION  AWARD   Martina Consonni (Italy); Shimin Ouyang (China)

WINNERS of 2013

GRAND  PRIZE  Simon Xu; Yixuan Wei
DISTINCTION  AWARD  Audray Abela; Jarred Morehead
OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE AWARD  Shao-Hsun Chang; Soojin Kim; Sunghyaun Suk

WINNERS of 2012

GRAND  PRIZE  Kelly Ho (Taiwan); Liana Paniyeva (Ukraine)
Zhen Luo (China) [alternate]
CONCERT ARTIST  AWARD  Zhiye Chen (China); Sina Kloke (Germany);
Zhen Luo (China); Xiaoyi Xiong (China)