It all started in 2010, the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto organized the first Toronto International Piano Competition. Four years later, they are back with bigger prizes, a more prestigious jury, and a slicker operation.
Over the course of a week, an international group of 24 musicians under the age of 35 competed at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Koerner Hall. Three finalists emerged after the week of solo performances, and on Saturday, each took to the stage to play a concerto accompanied by the Toronto Concert Orchestra.
“The most important thing for this competition is to promote classical music and to bring the world to Toronto,” Lang-Ning Liu, the competition’s artistic director, said at the event. “The works are two hundred, three hundred, four hundred years old, but people are bringing their new perceptions and understanding, so it’s always fresh and exciting.”