Over ten extraordinary days in Calgary, three remarkable pianists captivated audiences and jurors alike through performances of insight, imagination, and artistic integrity.
“Honens is thrilled to welcome three extraordinary pianists to the Final Rounds,” says Honens Artistic Director Jon Kimura Parker. “The artistry of each Semifinalist was at the highest level this year. It was especially challenging for the jurors to narrow the group down to three, but the musical insight, performance, and overall brilliance that Carter, Élisabeth, and Anastasia exhibited had a profound impact.”
These Laureates embody the Honens ideal of the Complete Artist: "one whose voice dares, connects, and carries music into the world."
Élisabeth Pion, 2025 Honens Gold Laureate, began playing the piano at age five in a household filled with music. She felt an intuitive physical relationship to the keyboard and could play for hours on end. She loved science, literature, and philosophy, but decided at 19 to pursue a career in music.
Carter Johnson, 2025 Honens Silver Laureate, says there wasn’t a strong musical tradition in the family when Carter Johnson grew up in Campbell River, a small town on Vancouver Island. But with encouragement from his grandmother, his parents enrolled him in piano lessons when he was five and Carter fell in love with making music. By age seven, he knew he wanted to be a concert pianist.
Anastasia Vorotnaya, 2025 Honens Bronze Laureate, recalls having a wild and mischievous childhood growing up in a small city east of Moscow. She rollerbladed with abandon, played football with the boys, and loved roaring up and down a keyboard.
At the Finals, pianists each performed a piano quintet with the Isidore String Quartet as well as a piano concerto with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, led by conductor Elias Grandy.
