Piano competition

Vitaly Starikov, silver medalist at the 2025 Cliburn, says that when he's on stage, he's not thinking about the competition. In fact, he's having fun, performing for an appreciative audience. Hear the joy in his performance in this special program featuring highlights from his early rounds.

Beginning this week through August 16, we’ll listen together to some of the great early-round performances from this year’s Cliburn Competition. featuring the three Finalists: Evren Ozel, Vitaly Starikov, and Aristo Sham.

An Israeli/Russian took silver and a Minnesotan won bronze in the 17th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

Some music professionals say it's time to adopt the stretto piano

Hear all three of the 2024 Gurwitz International Piano Competition Finalists perform with the Mexico City Philharmonic in this program, recorded on Feb. 3, 2024.

With repertoire that included such varied fare as Franz Schubert’s sunny Sonata No. 21 and György Ligeti’s fiendishly difficult etude, “The Devil’s Staircase,” it's easy to see how the Gurwitz jurors awarded Yungyung Guo the Gold Medal.

The bronze medalist at this year's Gurwitz International Piano Competition, Young Sun Choi, plays music by Chopin, Mozart, Schumann, and San Antonio composer Aaron Prado in these excerpts from Rounds 1-3 of the competition.

The day before the fourth and final round of The 2024 Gurwitz International Piano Competition, jury chair Scott Yoo brought three colleagues into the TPR studios to look forward to what happens next for the talented artists competing, and offer their optimistic thoughts about the classical music scene.

Over the course of one week beginning Jan. 26, music fans can hear some of the best pianists in the world perform at the Gurwitz International Piano Competition, which includes a focus on Latin American and Spanish music.

In 2022, pianist Yunchan Lim, age 18, became the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Hear his early round performances on this edition of Performance Saturday.