The NextGen International Piano Competition

21/11/2022

One month left to apply for the NextGen International Piano Competition! Contestants of ages 14-32 submit a recording of a Sonata movement and a recording of an Etude. Read our complete rules here: https://nextgencompetition.org/rules. The application deadline is December 31st.

The NGIPC has over $10,000 in cash prizes: prizes are awarded to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place winners in both age categories.

We are also privileged to host six world-renowned jurors for the competition. Check out their biographies on our website: https://nextgencompetition.org/jury.

Submitting the application is easy. Go to https://nextgencompetition.org/apply to compete in the NGIPC!

The competition is accepting applications. Read to learn about the rules and important dates of the competition.

17/11/2022

We proudly welcome Peter Takács from Romania as a juror for the final round in the 2023 NGIPC! The deadline to apply for the competition is December 31st. You can read Peter's full biography on our website, here: https://nextgencompetition.org/peter-takacs/.

Hailed by the New York Times as “a marvelous pianist,” Peter Takács has performed widely, receiving critical and audience acclaim for his penetrating and communicative musical interpretations.

Mr. Takács was born in Bucuresti, Romania and started his musical studies before his fourth birthday. After his debut recital at age seven, he was a frequent recitalist in his native city until his parents’ request for emigration to the West, at which point all his studies and performances were banned. He continued studying clandestinely with his piano teacher until his family was finally allowed to emigrate to France, where, at age fourteen, he was admitted to the Conservatoire National de Paris.

Upon his arrival in the United States, his outstanding musical talents continued to be recognized with full scholarships to Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, and a three-year fellowship for doctoral studies at the Peabody Conservatory, where he completed his artistic training with renowned pianist Leon Fleisher.

Mr. Takács has received numerous prizes and awards, including First Prize in the William Kapell International Competition, the C.D. Jackson Award for Excellence in Chamber Music at the Tanglewood Music Center, and a Solo Recitalist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. His performances have been hailed by audiences and the press for their penetrating intellectual insight as well as for emotional urgency and communication.

Mr. Takács has performed as guest soloist with major orchestras in the U.S. and abroad, as well as at important summer festivals such as Tanglewood, Music Mountain, Chautauqua Institution, ARIA International, Schlern Music Festival in the Italian Alps, Tel Hai International Master Classes in Israel, Sweden’s Helsingborg Festival, Musicfest Perugia, and the Beijing International Music Festival. Since 2008, he has been a member of the faculty at the Montecito Summer Music Festival in Riverside, CA. He has performed and recorded the complete cycle of Beethoven Piano Sonatas, which was released on the CAMBRIA label in July 2011. In 2015, he was selected to inaugurate a new series in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall entitled “Key Pianists”, presenting three recitals of Beethoven solo and chamber music to critical acclaim. His recording of the complete Beethoven piano-cello music with cellist Robert DeMaine was released in July 2022.

Mr. Takács’ success as a teacher is attested to by his students’ accomplishments, who have won top prizes in competitions in the United States, Canada, Europe, and South Africa. They have been accepted at major graduate schools such as the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, Peabody Conservatory, and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, among many others. Mr. Takács has given master classes in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and has been a jury member at prestigious national and international competitions such as San Antonio International Keyboard Competition, Canadian National Competition, Cleveland International Piano Competition, and Hilton Head International Piano Competition. In 2020, a generous donor established a fund for a Takács/Beethoven Piano Sonata Prize to be awarded to a student excelling in Beethoven interpretation. Mr. Takács is Professor of Piano at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he has been teaching since 1976.

17/11/2022

We proudly welcome Gabriel Escudero Braquehais from Spain as a juror for the final round in the 2023 NGIPC! The deadline to apply for the competition is December 31st. You can read Gabriel's full biography on our website, here: https://nextgencompetition.org/gabriel-escudero-braquehais/.

Considered as one of the finest Spanish pianists of his generation, Gabriel Escudero Braquehais combines his performing activity with his teaching at an international level. Escudero has been invited to perform at important events and festivals in different parts of Spain and in countries such as Austria, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland, USA, Sweden. He has performed in emblematic venues such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, Musikverein in Vienna, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Musikhalle in Hamburg, Smetana Hall in Prague, Instituto Cervantes in New York, Scandinavian House in New York, The Historical Society Museum in New York, Sibelius Museum in Turku, as well as in international festivals such as the Steinway Piano Festival in Hamburg, Keys to the Future in New York, Sierra Musical in Madrid, Armonie della Sera in Ancona, Cesky Krumlov International Festival in Czech Republic, Extravaganza Piano Festival in Sofia, International Music Festival of Burgos, International Music Festival of Almansa, … appearing solo and with Spanish or foreign orchestras and groups such as the Kammerensamble of the Berlin Opera Orchestra, Ensamble Les Amis from Shanghai, Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, Vogtland Philharmonie, Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica de la Región de Murcia, Trio Bacarisse, Camerata de Cartagena and Cartagena Symphony Orchestra. He has recorded for RNE and TVE (Spain) WQXR New York Radio and WFMT Chicago (USA) and Radio Bulgaria. Gabriel has recently joined Trio Quercus as their official pianist. 

Graduated from Mannes College, Manhattan School of Music and Sibelius Academy, Escudero is a Doctor of Musical Arts since 2013. Gabriel has received numerous national and international awards such as the Steinway & Sons Special Prize, as well as First Prizes at the “Ciutat de Manresa” Piano Competition, “Infanta Cristina” Piano Competition, or “Ciutat de Xativa” Piano Competition. In 2017, he was awarded the Extraordinary Award from the “Entre Cuerdas y Metales” Competition for his musical career. Throughout his artistic life he has worked with masters such as Ana Guijarro, Eldar Nebolsin, Ilmo Ranta, Yefim Bronfman and Arkady Aronov, who have positively influenced his pianism.

Deeply interested in piano pedagogy, Gabriel Escudero has worked at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, the International School of Music Finland in Helsinki, and the FaceArt Institute of Music in Shanghai. He has also given master classes in the US, Spain, Finland, China and Hong-Kong. Most of his students have entered the most important music schools and universities in the United States, such as Roosevelt University in Chicago, Manhattan School of Music, Boston Conservatory, Curtis Institute, Brigham Young University School of Music in Utah, and won national and international competitions. At present, he carries out his pedagogical activity in Spain, working at a Piano Chair at the Superior Music Conservatory in Murcia and at the international school Musical Arts Madrid.

17/11/2022

We proudly welcome Joanne Polk from the U.S as a juror for the final round in the 2023 NGIPC! The deadline to apply for the competition is December 31st. You can read Joanne's full biography on our website, here: https://nextgencompetition.org/joanne-polk/.

Joanne Polk was catapulted into the public eye with her recordings of the complete piano works of American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944) on the Arabesque Recordings label. Ms. Polk celebrated the centennial of Beach’s Piano Concerto by giving the work its London premiere with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Center under the baton of Paul Goodwin. A few days later, Ms. Polk performed the Piano Concerto with the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco with conductor Apo Hsu in a performance described as “brilliant” by critic Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle. He went on to describe Ms. Polk’s performance as, “an enormously vital, imaginative reading. Her playing was expansive in the opening movement, brittle and keen in the delightful scherzo. She brought a light touch to the foreshortened slow movement and fearless technical penache to the showy conclusion.”

The first recording in the Beach series, by the still waters, received the 1998 INDIE award for best solo recording. Empress of Night, the fifth volume of Ms. Polk’s survey of Beach’s piano works, includes the Piano Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra, Paul Goodwin conducting. The sixth volume of the series, Morning Glories, joins Ms. Polk with the Lark Quartet in three outstanding chamber music works by Amy Beach. Two all-Beach performances at Merkin Concert Hall, which featured Joanne Polk and the Lark Quartet, were applauded by the New York Times, as they deemed Polk’s performances “polished and assured.” American Record Guide reported, “Polk and the Larks played their hearts out. We in the audience shouted ourselves hoarse with gratitude.”

Prior to recording the complete piano music of Amy Beach, Ms. Polk recorded Completely Clara: Lieder by Clara Wieck Schumann, her debut CD for Arabesque Recording, featuring Metropolitan Opera soprano Korliss Uecker. This CD was selected as a “Best of the Year” recording by The Seattle Times and was featured on Performance Today on New York Public Radio. Ms. Polk’s CD for Albany Records, Callisto, features the solo piano music of Judith Lang Zaimont. Her CD titled Songs of Amy Beach, recorded with baritone Patrick Mason for Bridge Records, was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2010, Ms. Polk’s two-CD set of solo piano music by F***y Mendelssohn Hensel, Songs for Pianofore, was released on the Newport Classic label. Ms. Polk’s solo piano CD, titled F***y and Felix Mendelssohn, was released in 2012 on the Bridge Records label.

In 2014, Ms. Polk’s CD titled The Flatterer, solo piano music of French Romantic composer Cécile Chaminade, was released on the Steinway & Sons Label. The CD was a “Pick of the Week” on New York’s classical radio station WQXR and debuted at #1 on the Classical Billboard Chart. In 2017, Joanne Polk’s CD, Gershwin & Wild, was released on the Steinway & Sons Label and features Earl Wild’s transcriptions of Gershwin songs, as well as Wild’s Piano Sonata. American Record Guide called Ms. Polk’s playing on this CD, “plush and dreamily attractive…”

In 2014, Joanne Polk was named as one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year in an article titled, “Profiles in Courage.” Ms. Polk’s profile focused on her work promoting the music of women composers.

Ms. Polk received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees from The Juilliard School, and her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from Manhattan School of Music. She has given master classes at many summer festivals and universities across the country, and in 2018 completed a five-city, three-week concert and master class tour of Taiwan and China.

Ms. Polk is a member of the piano faculty of Manhattan School of Music and is an exclusive Steinway artist.

16/11/2022

We proudly welcome Mika Sasaki from the U.S as a juror for the preliminary round in the 2023 NGIPC! The deadline to apply for the competition is December 31st. You can read Mika's full biography on our website, here: https://nextgencompetition.org/mika-sasaki/.

Mika Sasaki is an imaginative and versatile soloist, chamber musician, and educator whose performances and teaching have taken her to the U.K., Italy, Japan, Switzerland, and throughout the U.S. Her debut album, Obsidian: Mika Sasaki plays Clara Schumann, released on Yarlung Records in 2016, was highly acclaimed by the Online Merker as “illuminat[ing] the artistic inspiration and creative exchange between three Romantic souls,” Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. Her performances have been broadcasted on WQXR, WFMT, All Classical Portland, and Radio Sweden. She has appeared as concerto soloist with the Sinfonia of Cambridge (U.K.), New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, 92Y Orchestra, and more recently, with the InterSchool Symphony Orchestra of New York, performing Amy Beach’s Piano Concerto in February 2019.

Mika is the pianist of the multi-genre sextet Ensemble Mélange and appears regularly with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble in Boston, Manhattan Chamber Players, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and with her duo partners. Together with violinist Becky Anderson as the Anderson-Sasaki Duo, she presented interactive performances at schools and community venues around Chattanooga, TN, for a residency with String Theory at the Hunter (2022) as well as in Portland, OR, for a three-year residency with Chamber Music Northwest (2022-2025). Her festival appearances include Tanglewood, Chigiana, Taos, Yellow Barn, Aspen, Focus!, Icicle Creek, Mannes Beethoven Institute, Caramoor, Shandelee, Weekend of Chamber Music, and Central Vermont Chamber Music Festival, and she has been invited to teach and perform at pianoSonoma, Rushmore, Omaha Conservatory SoundWaves, Taubman Piano Festival, WCYO Charles Ives Music Festival, Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard in Geneva, Switzerland, and Music@Menlo, where she will continue as Chamber Music Institute faculty in 2023.

Mika is an alumna of the Peabody Conservatory (B.M., M.M.), Ensemble Connect—a two-year fellowship program of Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, and the Weill Institute, in partnership with the NYC Department of Education—and The Juilliard School (D.M.A.), where she was a two-year recipient of the Juilliard Career Advancement Grant upon graduation. Her teachers have included Benjamin Pasternack, Gilbert Kalish, and Joseph Kalichstein.

Based in New York City, Mika is a faculty member at The Juilliard School, where she supervises the secondary piano department in the College Division and teaches keyboard skills, piano, and chamber music in the College, Pre-College, and Extension Divisions. When not at the piano, she can be found tending to her houseplants, hiking, or chasing after her cat.

15/11/2022

We proudly welcome Joseph Rackers from the U.S as a juror for the preliminary round in the 2023 NGIPC! The deadline to apply for the competition is December 31st. You can read Joseph's biography on our website, here: https://nextgencompetition.org/joseph-rackers/.

Joseph Rackers has performed for enthusiastic audiences in New York, Boston, Chicago, Kiev, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Paris, Rome, Shanghai, Seoul and Washington D.C., at venues across Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Bulgaria, Ukraine and extensively throughout the United States. His performances around the world include the Shanghai and Sichuan Conservatories of Music, Kiev International Music Festival, Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival, Seoul International Piano Festival, Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, Banff Centre for the Arts, Indiana University Piano Festival, American Liszt Society Festival, Yantai International Music Festival, Varna International Piano Festival and Society of Composers International Conference, in addition to recitals in most of the fifty states in the U.S. Gramophone writes, “the results are consistently compelling…as if Rackers response were primarily to his relationship with the composer as some sort of kindred spirit.”

Joseph Rackers is an International Steinway Artist. His recordings as soloist, collaborative pianist and producer are available on MSR Classics, Navona, Centaur, Equilibrium, Beauport Classics and Steinway Spirio and his performances have been broadcast on radio and television across the United States and Europe. His recent solo release with MSR Classics was widely recognized by the press; “unflappable virtuosity…highly expressive…committed to letting the composer’s voice—as he hears it—come through” (American Record Guide), “compelling power, rhythmic persuasiveness…consummate style…complete mastery” (Audio Society). 


Rackers is Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music, Co-Founder of the Southeastern Piano Festival and Artistic Director of the Vivace Music Foundation. He has been honored as an Illustrious Alumni of the University of Missouri School of Music for the one-hundredth anniversary of the school and has also been honored by the South Carolina House of Representatives and South Carolina State Senate for his personal contribution to the arts in South Carolina and leadership of the Southeastern Piano Festival. He has given presentations and performances for conferences of the Music Teachers National Association, College Music Society and North American Historical Keyboard Society. Prior to his appointment at Eastman, he served as Professor of Piano at the University of South Carolina School of Music and head of the Piano Area.

Also active as a chamber musician, Rackers has performed widely as a member of the Lomazov/Rackers Piano Duo. Praised for “demon precision and complete dedication” (Audio Society), the duo garnered significant attention as the Second Prize Winners of the Sixth Ellis Competition for Duo Pianists, the only national duo piano competition in the United States at that time. Gramophone praises the duo for “assured and centered pianism” and American Record Guide writes “the ensemble between Lomazov and Rackers is dead-on”. Rackers earned the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees at the Eastman School of Music, where he was also awarded the Performer’s Certificate. His principal teachers were Raymond Herbert and Natalya Antonova with additional study or masterclasses with Julian Martin, Misha Dichter and Blanca Uribe, among others.

A devoted teacher, Rackers has given masterclasses at Indiana University, University of Michigan, Boston University, Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival, UCLA, UNLV, Vanderbilt, and at conservatories and music festivals across Europe and Asia. He has recently served as Schwartz Artist in Residence at Emory University and as faculty or guest artist at the Chicago International Music Institute, Music Fest Perugia, Burgos International Music Festival, Texas State International Piano Festival and as a National Reviewer for the National YoungArts Foundation. He is in demand as a jury member for national and international piano competitions and his students have performed for venues including Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Minnesota Orchestra, Aspen and Cliburn music festivals, From the Top on NPR and Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theater. They have earned dozens of national and international awards and are active as performers and teachers in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

15/11/2022

We proudly welcome Dinara Klinton from Ukraine as a juror for the preliminary round in the 2023 NGIPC! The deadline to apply for the competition is December 31st. You can read Dinara's biography on our website, here: https://nextgencompetition.org/dinara-klinton/.

After sharing the top prize at the 2006 Busoni Piano Competition age 18, Dinara took up a busy international concert schedule, appearing at many festivals including the “Progetto Martha Argerich” in Lugano, the Cheltenham Music Festival, the Aldeburgh Proms and “La Roque d’Antheron”. She has performed at many of the world’s major concert venues, including the Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Berliner Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Gewandhaus Leipzig, New York 92Y, Cleveland Severance Hall, Tokyo Sumida Triphony Hall, Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory and Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. Her concerto engagements include The Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and others.

Dinara combines her performing career with piano professor positions at the Royal College of Music and the Yehudi Menuhin School.

As a recording artist, she has received widespread critical acclaim. Her album of Liszt’s Études d’exécution transcendante, released by the German label GENUIN classics, resulted in dazzling reviews and was selected by BBC Music Magazine as Recording of the Month. Dinara’s debut album ‘Music of Chopin and Liszt’ was made at the age of 16 with the American label DELOS. Her other albums include a CD of Chopin’s music by The Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Poland and the complete Prokofiev Piano Sonatas released by Piano Classics. Dinara’s first commercial recording with orchestra has been released this year by Dabringhaus und Grimm, featuring Balakirev’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

Dinara’s music education started in the age of five in her native Kharkiv, Ukraine. She graduated with highest honours from the Moscow Central Music School under Valery Piassetski, and the Moscow State Conservatory P.I. Tchaikovsky under Eliso Virsaladze. She went on to complete her Master’s degree at the Royal College of Music under Dina Parakhina. Dinara also attended masterclasses at the Lake Como Piano Academy and worked with Boris Petrushansky in the Imola Piano Academy.

28/07/2022

The NextGen International Piano Competitions is heading to 2023! After an amazing edition in 2022, we are thrilled to announce the complete rules and schedule of the 2023 competition. While our core format remains the same, there are some key differences:

1. There will be 2 rounds: a preliminary and a final. In the preliminary round, applicants submit two recordings (check out our specific requirements at nextgencompetition.org/rules). The jury will choose 8 finalists in each age category. For the Youth category, finalists submit up to 30 minutes of open repertoire, while for the Advanced category, finalists submit up to 45 minutes of open repertoire.

2. There are more prizes. The 2022 NGIPC featured 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place cash prizes for both the Youth and Advanced categories. For the 2023 NGIPC, we will also be awarding cash prizes to 4th place competitors. Additionally, we will be issuing honorable mentions to select competitors who didn't make the finals.

3. The final round will be livestreamed. The 2023 NGIPC will feature a Youtube livestream of finalists' performances from April 15th to 16th. You can watch the performances live, as well as after.

Do you know anyone who might be interested in competing in the NGIPC? Please share us with them! We are still new and need all the support we can get.

The NGIPC will continue posting updates and reminders on our social media accounts. We thank you for your encouragement, and extend a special thank you to the contestants of the 2022 competition for being an integral part of the NGIPC.

The competition is accepting applications. Read to learn about the rules and important dates of the competition.