{"id":118784,"date":"2025-10-22T11:05:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T15:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=118784"},"modified":"2025-10-22T14:00:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T18:00:01","slug":"feature-honens-international-piano-competition-things-little-differently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/10\/22\/feature-honens-international-piano-competition-things-little-differently\/","title":{"rendered":"FEATURE | The Honens International Piano Competition Does Things A Little Differently"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Honens International Piano Competition headquarters in Calgary (Photo courtesy of Honens)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The triennial Calgary contest announced its three finalists on Tuesday, in essence revealing the gold, silver and bronze laureates before<\/em> they embark on the concluding trials, which determine who gets which prize.<\/p>\n

The happy three are Carter Johnson, 29; \u00c9lisabeth Pion, 29; and Anastasia Vorotnaya, 30. It is interesting to note that they were the oldest of the 10 semifinalists. Carter and Pion were the only Canadians.<\/p>\n

Each will be heard Thursday with the Isidore String Quartet, then Friday October 24 with the Calgary Philharmonic under the German-Japanese conductor Elias Grandy. Piano quintets are by Brahms (Johnson), Franck (Pion) and Dvo\u0159\u00e1k (Vorotnaya). Piano concertos are Prokofiev\u2019s Second (Johnson), Prokofiev\u2019s Third (Pion) and Brahms\u2019s Second (Vorotnaya).<\/p>\n

Both sessions, in the Jack Singer Concert Hall, start at 7 p.m. Mountain Time (9 p.m. ET) and are streamed on the competition\u2019s You Tube channel, which is easily reached here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Prizes<\/h3>\n

Expect the final result \u2014 i.e. the 1-2-3 order \u2014 late Friday. Gold is worth CAN $100,000; Silver, $40,000; Bronze, $20,000.<\/p>\n

There is also a $5,000 Audience Choice Award and $5,000 for the best performance of the commissioned work, Fracture, by the Iranian-Canadian composer Iman Habibi. Non-finishing semifinalists receive $2,500 in consolation money.<\/p>\n

The Complete Artist<\/h3>\n

Honens differs from its competitor competitions (among which we might mention the recently concluded International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw) in its determination to find what it calls the Complete Artist \u2014 a species possessing qualities beyond those involved in the successful application of fingers to ivories.<\/p>\n

\u201cA thoughtful interpreter, a consummate collaborator, an awe-inspiring virtuoso, a communicator, a risk-taking explorer, a dreamer,\u201d begin the Honens terms of reference. Other necessities include performances informed by \u201ca wide cultural context\u201d and \u201ca fascination for life outside the practice studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

On-the-ground savvy is helpful. The Honens laureate (aged 20 to 30) will be \u201ca citizen artist who is skilled in the business of music, able to recognize and seize opportunities, knowledgeable about self-care, influential in communications, and socially conscious.\u201d<\/p>\n

High expectations \u2014 which, if applied mercilessly 50 years ago, might have sidelined such reclusive figures as Vladimir Horowitz and Sviatoslav Richter. Of course, these pianists did not need to contend with social media and the other invasive demands of the 21st century.<\/p>\n

In practical terms the Honens Complete Artist is a pianist who exhibits an ability \u2014 inevitably, in English \u2014 to communicate orally. One part of the protocols for finalists is a half-hour interview, which the seven jurors (under the supervision of Honens artistic director Jon Kimura Parker) are expected to take into account.<\/p>\n

All of the semifinalists \u2014 the others are \u00c1d\u00e1m Balogh, 28; Elia Cecino, 24; Giorgio Lazzari, 25; Sandro Nebieridze, 24; Chaeyoung Park, 28; Derek Wang, 27; Yuanfan Yang, 28 \u2014 can be heard giving mini-interviews in the archived YouTube videos of their recitals.<\/p>\n

Tributes to cooking, travel and filmgoing are common. Carter, a father of two, waxes lyrical about overseeing the barbecue while his wife attends to the sides. Pion is a Tai Chi enthusiast who led a post-performance session last March with members of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n

Vorotnaya watches videos of heart transplants. The pastime seems less macabre if we keep in mind that this Russian was once on track for a career in medicine.<\/p>\n

Lazzari, an Italian, includes scuba and free diving among his extracurriculars. \u201cYou really have to be in the moment and comfortable,\u201d he says, believably, comparing the underwater experience with life on stage.<\/p>\n

Balogh, a Hungarian making his second Honens appearance, mentions go-karting as a nonmusical interest. \u201cI\u2019m not sure I\u2019m thinking about who\u2019s listening\u201d was his refreshingly frank response to a question about how he interacts with the audience. It might not have helped his chances.<\/p>\n

Candidates must write as well as speak. All were asked to supply their own program notes. Wang, an American, discusses rhythmic displacement in Schumann\u2019s Toccata with considerable analytical precision. Park, who at age 10 moved with her family from Seoul to Lawrence, Kansas, takes Habibi\u2019s environmentalist agenda to heart. \u201cFrom the very first fortissimo chord, the work seems to depict a world shaken at its foundations,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n

The Semifinals<\/h3>\n

Semifinal programs had to include music by a composer the competitor deemed underrepresented. For Johnson this bill was filled by the Polish avant-gardiste Hanna Kulenty, who stipulates that her AtlantissSolo is to be played \u201cmechanically, without emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Pion and Vorotnaya satisfied the underrepresented requirement with the three-movement Sonata No. 2 in E Minor of Gra\u017cyna Bacewicz, 1909-69, another Pole, whose richly chromatic music is being reexamined. Pion followed the Bacewicz with Sept mers \u00e9parses, a piece of her own.<\/p>\n

Of course, all the semifinalists were required to play the Habibi piece, a newly-written eight-minute rhapsody on the popular subject of climate catastrophe. His objective was not to produce a knuckle-buster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is technically challenging, don\u2019t get me wrong,\u201d he says in an online interview, \u201cbut I didn\u2019t want to make it frustratingly challenging\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to give the competitors a musical challenge. It\u2019s like a puzzle\u2026You have a lot of choices as to what voices you can bring out, what leads to what.\u201d<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n

It has not gone unnoticed that the Honens intersected with the Chopin competition, an event that attracts tens of thousands of online viewers from around the world.<\/p>\n

Another competitive source of interest, not least in Canada, is the Major League Baseball postseason.<\/p>\n

Wang, a baseball enthusiast, planned to find time in the midst of the competition to watch a few highlight reels. \u201cI\u2019m a Boston fan,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I\u2019m happy to root for Toronto because you guys beat the Yankees.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The triennial Honens International Piano Competition announced its three finalists on Tuesday, revealing the gold, silver and bronze laureates before they embark on the concluding trials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":118787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41660,17,4967,39,47],"tags":[41970,42039,9511],"yst_prominent_words":[10293,10746,7292,14600,28547,7781,27937,11410,6616,9913,7141,13317,10631],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/10\/Copy-of-FEATURE-22.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-uTS","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118784"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118792,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118784\/revisions\/118792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118784"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=118784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}