Bolzano - Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition
The Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition was launched on 12 September 1949. It immediately captured the attention of the contemporary music scene, due in part to the presence of an extraordinary Honorary Committee, which included Claudio Arrau, Wilhelm Backhaus, Alfred Cortot, Walther Gieseking, Dinu Lipatti, Arthur Rubinstein and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, who made a considerable sum of money available for second prize. From a one-off competition, it would soon become an indispensable annual event.
Today, the Busoni Competition is much more than a piano competition. Building on its history the competition aims to create and develop a real platform for contact between teachers and young people, continuing its role as seismograph of contemporary musical life.
2020 has been a year of unprecedented challenges for arts institutions worldwide. The Busoni Piano Competition has decided not to give in and instead has developed an innovative new way of holding its preliminary stages: By turning this important first lap on the way to the grand finals in 2021 into The Glocal Piano Project, the competition is happening worldwide.
Instead of allowing the pressure of the pandemic to reduce the 70-year-old institution’s scope, the “Busoni” is asserting its international identity more decisively than ever by holding a hybrid form of both online and offline auditions at Steinway & Sonsdealers all over the globe.
Contact
Monika Torresan
Via dei Portici 19A
39100 Bolzano
Italy
