For the uninitiated, this piano competition is a big deal, according to Patricia K. Rose, Sponsorship Director for the Fourth American International Paderewski Piano Competition. It is sort of like a mini Piano Olympics, where audiences will hear 25 of the best professional young pianists between the ages of 16 and 30 from 13 countries play on a 9-foot Steinway Model D, the same piano used for performances at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Dr. Wojciech Kocyan, Artistic Director of the Paderewski Music Society, co-founded the competition in 2010. The inaugural event repeated in 2013 but then did not occur again until after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, when it popped up at Loyola Marymount University, where Kocyan is a professor of music. This is the Fourth American International Paderewski Piano Competition.
Contestants are hoping to get noticed and practice for what Rose called “the big kahuna of it all,” the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, which happens every 5 years. Next year will be 100 years since its launch in 1927.
“Three of our pianists from 2022 went on to the Chopin Competition,” said Rose. “One of our judges is from the Chopin Competition. This is all due to Kocyan.”
Kocyan earned his doctorate at USC, won First Prize at the Paderewski Competition in Poland and a special prize in the 11th Chopin Competition. He is known internationally as an adjudicator, lecturer and scholar.
“The pianists in our competition have already embarked on international performing careers,” Rose explained. “They study with the top teachers at the top conservatories and universities in the world. Most of them started playing piano at age 4 or 5, and they’ve never stopped. They practice 8 hours a day playing piano. This is a rare opportunity to hear so many high-level pianists at one time in Los Angeles or even in the U.S.”
“The tickets for the semifinals start at $15, which are the first three days,” she continued.
“Just to compare, one of the winning pianists from the Chopin Competition will be performing at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the tickets start at $250. This is a really great opportunity to hear the best of the best for a really affordable price.”
The artists who compete and play in the American International Paderewski Piano Competition are extremely dedicated to their craft.
“I was watching a program about the behind-the-scenes of the Chopin Competition in Poland, and they interviewed a number of people who were competing at the event this last October, and they are so committed to their art, just like when you see the kids who are in the Olympics,” said Rose. “They go to live in Poland to study with the best teachers. They go to live in the United States, and they are going to the top conservatories, for example, Juilliard School in New York and the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.”
The pianists will be hosted by LA locals: families who are serious about piano and own a very good grand piano so the contestants can practice. The pianists are from Armenia, Canada, China, France, Japan Korea, Mexico, Poland, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom and the United States.
“The piano playing is at the same level as that at concerts at Walt Disney Concert Hall or the Hollywood Bowl or as the LA Philharmonic,” Rose said. “These young pianists will one day be playing on those stages. They’re at the beginning of their careers, but they are professionals already. They have been performing in top concert halls around the world. The piano competitions are part of their education and part of their ability to promote themselves.”
Winners compete for the grand prize of $10,000 and to perform in the United States and Poland on the legendary Paderewski stage. Second prize is $5,000, third prize is $2,500, the Paderewski Prize is $2,000 and the Contemporary Work Prize is $2,000.
The five-person judging panel consists of Gloria Cheng, Jed Distler, Wojciech Kocyan, Wojciech Switala and Adam Wibrowski.
The competition will be held February 9-14 at Murphy Recital Hall at Loyola Marymount University in West Los Angeles and also be streamed live on YouTube.
For more information, visit paderewskimusicsociety.org.