Three of the world’s leading international pianists and 20 brilliant emerging young pianists from Australia and New Zealand will arrive in Brisbane on Sunday 30 June to participate in the coveted 11th Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition & Festival. The principal 2019 partners, Griffith University Queensland and the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, have created a thrilling program featuring world class and emerging young musicians including two aspiring 10-year olds.
The biennial Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition & Festival is Australia’s richest and most prestigious program for pianists aged 16 to 30 the chance to compete for international recognition, concert engagements and significant prizes. In addition to the competition rounds, there will be numerous recitals, masterclasses and the Little Lev program, which is a unique piano development program for piano students aged 10 to 15 years.
Events in the 14-day festival include advanced master-classes, recitals, forums and semi-final rounds and finals from Queensland Conservatorium Theatre. After a week of competitive rounds, four pianists will compete for the $25,000 first prize and $60,000 in prize money in a final concert on Friday 12 July. Each finalist will perform a concerto with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra under the direction of acclaimed conductor, Richard Davis, in the presence of a prestigious international jury.
Previous winners include Jayson Gillham, Ayesha Gough, Tony Lee, Hoang Pham, John Chen (who went on to win the Sydney International) and former Jury Chair Piers Lane AO are now concert pianists performing as recitalists and soloists and with Australian and International Symphony Orchestras.
Semi-finalists will be required to perform a new work by esteemed Australian composer and clarinettist, Paul Dean, Head of Winds at Queensland Conservatorium and this year’s Composer in Residence for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s 2019 season.
In 1999, Natasha Vlassenko, Head of Keyboard studies at Queensland Conservatorium and her husband Oleg Stepanov, pianist and lecturer, co-founded the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition in memory of her famous pianist father Lev Vlassenko, a decorated artist of the USSR. Vlassenko and Stepanov, graduates of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, are Artistic Directors of the competition recognised as the only major piano event in Australia that mirrors the requirements of an international competition.
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