After 290 pianists auditioned for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition over the last two months, today the competition announced the 30 musicians who have made it to the big shindig at Bass Hall this summer. The list, with competitors’ surnames in capitals, is as follows:
Martin James BARTLETT (United Kingdom)
Sergey BELYAVSKIY (Russia)
Alina BERCU (Romania)
Kenneth BROBERG (United States)
Luigi CARROCCIA (Italy)
CHEN Han (Taiwan)
Rachel CHEUNG (Hong Kong)
Yury FAVORIN (Russia)
Madoka FUKAMI (Japan)
Mehdi GHAZI (Algeria and Canada)
Caterina GREWE (Germany)
Daniel HSU (United States)
Alyosha JURINIĆ (Croatia)
Nikolay KHOZYAINOV (Russia)
KIM Da-sol (South Korea)
KIM Hong-gi (South Korea)
KIM Su-yeon (South Korea)
Julia KOCLUBAN (Poland)
Rachel KUDO (United States)
LEE Eun-ae (South Korea)
Ilya MAXIMOV (Russia)
PARK Sun-ah (United States)
Leonardo PIERDOMENICO (Italy)
Philipp SCHEUCHER (Austria)
Ilya SHMUKLER (Russia)
SUN Yutong (China)
SUNWOO Ye-kwon (South Korea)
Georgy TCHAIDZE (Russia)
Tristan TEO (Canada)
Tony Yike YANG (Canada)
I have to say I’m surprised that China got only one contestant in here, though two others come from Chinese-speaking nations. Meanwhile, Russia has six competitors, more than any other nation, and South Korea has reason to celebrate, as a relatively small nation with five contestants making the cut (and that’s not counting one American of Korean descent). The competition starts on May 25.
