The Well-Tempered Ear

Meet the 2024 winners of the Classic Piano International Competition in Dubai, UAE

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By Jacob Stockinger

Did you know that the fourth and final round of a major international piano competition was taking place in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates this past week?

The Ear didn’t — until now.

That when he saw the nine 2024 winners (below), chosen from 70 participants, named in a post on The Violin Channel website. 

The third edition of Classic Piano International Competition — which started during the 2017-28 season — makes sense when you think about it.

Dubai has lots of oil money but not a lot of Western culture or prestige. But Piano World contains more than enough competitors and venues for the event — even after such top-ranked, career-boosting competitions as the Tchaikovsky in Russia, the Arthur Rubinstein in Israel, the Leeds in the UK, the Chopin in Poland and the Van Cliburn in the United States.

So why not a major piano event for the Middle East and the Arab world? (Readers: Do you know if any other music competitions take place in that area?)

Its format is unusual.

Pianists cannot apply directly. Instead, they have to participate in the early rounds that are held in countries around the world. Those who finish in the Top Five of a preliminary competition get invited to the final round in Dubai. 

The competition’s preliminary rounds took place in the USA, France, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Kazakhstan, Poland, UK, Armenia, China, South Korea, Japan, Israel, and Spain.

Here is some general background:

https://classicpiano.eu

And here are details including the jury members, the various prizes, and the restricted and required repertoire that the pianists must select from:

https://classicpiano.eu/competition

Russian and Asian pianists dominated this year, with veteran Andrey Gugnin of Russia (below and in the YouTube video at the bottom) taking home the first prize of 100,000 Euros ($108,300) plus 10 concert dates and a 50,000-Euro honorarium for performing with two different orchestras: the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. Gugnin, who protested Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, now lives in Croatia.

Here is a link to the story with the complete list of winners:

Like many major music competitions these days, Dubai’s was live-streamed. Its global media partners are medici.tv; euronews; and bachtrack. You can or will soon be able to find various artists and rounds of the competition on YouTube.