Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition and Festival

The Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition and Festival

The Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition and Festival currently organizes and manages two major events, the Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition and the European Festival "Chopin in Cyprus" which includes a world-class faculty, performance opportunities, a concerto competition, and readings with orchestra. Applications to Chopin in Cyprus are treated as a separate program in the dropdown menu to the left. For more details about the program, please refer to the website of Chopin in Cyprus and the application form once you select the program in the dropdown to the left. Qualifying prizewinners in the Chopin in Cyprus Concerto Competition will receive automatic admission to the live Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition, so don't forget to join us in Cyprus!

The 2025 edition of the Competition now offers the choice of either live or recorded auditions for admission to the competition. Dates for the live auditions will be announced by the end of January, 2025. They will be held in June - August, 2025, in 1) Tbilisi, Georgia (for this location, please see nashvillechopin.org/2025/apply, it is not available here on Acceptd), 2) Shenyang, China 3) Prague, Czech Republic, and 4) Bangkok, Thailand. If you select "Live Audition" as the first question in your application, please select one of the aforementioned cities to continue to the rest of the application here on Acceptd. 

The Competition and Festival's purpose is to discover young talent capable of representing the Competition’s values: musicality, sensitivity, humility, constant re-evaluation, ceaseless striving for excellence, attention to detail, technical excellence, and respect for Frédéric Chopin’s musical text. These values are inspired by the competition and career experiences of the competition’s co-founders, Dr. Graciella Kowalczyk, a Polish-American star pianist and instructor, and Joshua Izzard, a leading American former concert pianist and current finance executive and investor. 

The Competition offers young pianists an extraordinary opportunity to showcase their talent in a transparent and unbiased competition and to win significant cash and other potential awards. The Artist Division consists of Preliminary (Screening) and Semifinal Solo rounds, and a Final round with orchestra. The Young Musician I and II Divisions consist of a Preliminary (Screening) and a Solo round.

The 2025 edition will be held in Nashville, TN, USA  from December 14th - 19th at Vanderbilt University.

The 2025 edition of Chopin in Cyprus will be held from June 9 - 14, 2025 in Cyprus.  

Additional information and content can be found on the competition website at www.nashvillechopin.org.

CONDITIONS FOR ENTRY

• Young Musician I (ages 5 - 10)
• Young Musician II (ages 11 - 15)
• Artist (ages 16 - 33)

1. 1. The 2025 Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition is open to professional pianists of all nationalities who were born between December 20, 1991, and December 19, 2020 (inclusive).

   2. The applicant’s age as of 11:59:59 p.m. United States Pacific Time on December 19, 2025, will determine the age category they are eligible to apply for and compete in. If a competitor’s birthday during the week of the competition causes them to exceed the age limit of their chosen category, they must instead apply to the next eligible category.

   3. Potential competitors may apply to only a single age category, and that category may be that in which their age falls or any higher age category (i.e., a 15-year-old can apply to Young Musician II or Artist Category).

   4. Only competitors opting to compete in the Artist Category will compete in the final round with orchestra and be eligible for the Alexei Sultanov Memorial Discovery Prize.

   5. Competitors opting to compete in a higher age category than their physical age will be screened with the same standards and criteria as all other competitors in the age category they have opted to compete in.

   6. The application deadline is October 17th, 2025, with application status decisions to be sent by November 7th, 2025. 

   7. Students and family members of Competition Jury members may not participate.

   8. All works must be played from memory.

   9. The order of the performances will be determined by random draw.

   10. Competitors who are not available to perform when called upon to do so by the Jury may be disqualified.

   11. The decisions of the Jury will be final and not subject to appeal.

   12. The Jury may award, withhold, or split any prize as deemed fit.

   13. The Alexei Sultanov Memorial Discovery Prize and 1st Prize in the division of the winner of the Sultanov Prize may differ.

   14. Rights to any competition or competition-related performance, interview, video, or audio whether broadcast, televised, recorded, or filmed belong to the Competition. This includes all materials made by jury members and applicants or competitors that have been sent to the competition by aforesaid for its use. No fee is payable on account of these performances or any recordings, broadcasts, or transmissions.

   15. The number of competitors admitted to each category will be determined by the number of unanimous admission decisions and the subsequent ranking of those decisions by the Screening Jury.

   16. The Jury reserves the right to alter this number at its discretion.

   17. The Repertoire must have been written for solo piano and no alteration to the piano may take place. Strict adherence to time limits must be observed. 

   18. The audition recording must be uploaded as a single link or a playlist on YouTube.

   19. Admission to the live competition is based on 1) an audition recording (live or studio performance within the last 24 months) of the recommended 12 - 20 minute length (no hard length limitations will be applied but the Screening Jury will choose a maximum of 20 minutes to listen to) including a minimum of one work by Chopin, or 2) a top prize at the Concerto Competition taking place as a part of the Chopin in Cyprus Festival, taking place in Cyprus June 9 - 14th, 2025, or 3) a 10, 20, or 30-minute (for Young Musician I, Young Musician II, and Artist Division, respectively) live audition in Bangkok, Thailand, Prague, Czech Republic, Tbilisi, Georgia, or Shenyang, China in June - August, 2025. Dates of the live auditions follow:

       1. Tbilisi, Georgia: June 16th - 17th, 2025 (see application instructions, do not apply on Acceptd) - apply by June 1st, 2025

       2. Shenyang, China:  June 20th - 22nd, 2025 - apply by June 8th, 2025

       3. Prague Area, Czech Republic: July 26th - 27th, 2025 - apply by July 18th, 2025

       4. Bangkok, Thailand:  August 14th - 15th, 2025 - apply by August 7th, 2025

   20. Winners of live auditions will receive a travel scholarship for participation in Nashville at the discretion of the judges.

   21. All Chopin repertoire performed in the Screening Round must also be performed in the live Competition unless the length of the screening recording exceeds the live performance time limit.

   22. Editing and AI (Artificial Intelligence) manipulation of screening recordings are not allowed and may result in immediate disqualification and denial of admission to the live competition.

   23. All applicants admitted to the live competition must submit proof of age (passport, driver's license, or birth certificate) with their confirmation of intent to participate.  Failure to do so may result in disqualification. 

THE COMPETITION JURY

• Graciella Kowalczyk, Chairman
• Sergei Babayan, Jury Member
• Alexander Korsantia, Jury Member
  
• Zbigniew Raubo, Jury Member
  
• Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Jury Member and Asia Auditions Director
  
• Natalia Troull, Jury Member
  
• Pavel Nersessian, Jury Member
  
• Melissa Rose, Jury Member

Additional jury members are to be announced in the Autumn of 2025.

LIVE AUDITION SCREENING JURIES
The screening juries will differ in each city, chaired by Graciella Kowalczyk, except in China.
Antonio Pompa-Baldi will chair the China auditions jury.

THE ARTIST DIVISION (RECORDED) SCREENING JURY

To be announced in Autumn, 2025. 

THE YOUNG MUSICIAN I & II DIVISIONS (RECORDED) SCREENING JURY

To be announced in Autumn, 2025.

Alexei Sultanov Memorial Discovery Prize

The Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition only awards one Alexei Sultanov Memorial Discovery Prize, which cannot be shared, and which will be awarded in lieu of or aside from the 1st prize in the Artist Category.; the jury may, however, decide not to award the prize if the recommended 96/100 score is not achieved. The winner will receive $30,000. The other age category and special prize winners shall receive prizes as listed on the competition website's 2025 Prizes page:

Artist - Ages 16 - 22: 1st Prize: $10,000; 2nd Prize: $6,500; 3rd Prize: $4,000; 4th Prize: $2,000; 5th Prize: $1,500; 6th Prize: $1,000

Young Musician II - Ages 11 - 15: 1st Prize: $6,500; 2nd Prize: $4,000; 3rd Prize: $2,000

Young Musician I - Ages 6 - 10: 1st Prize: $4,000; 2nd Prize: $2,000; 3rd Prize: $1,000

Engagements

The Competition will strive to establish partnerships with various concert organizers and orchestras in the USA and abroad in order to propose concerts to the winner of the Alexei Sultanov Memorial Discovery Prize. The Competition is furthermore prepared to help the winner to find a concert agency with which he or she can collaborate, including the Competition management's agency, Apsinthion Artist Management.

Audience Choice Prize

During the live rounds of the competition, the public will have the opportunity to vote for the winner of the Audience Choice Prize. The performance of the optional work commissioned for the Competition, to be formally announced in February, 2025, will serve as the basis for awarding this prize. The score of the work will be emailed to all admitted competitors in the Young Musician II and Artist age categories (ages 11 - 15 and 16 - 33) after admission to the live round of the Competition, and competitors can make the decision at that time whether they wish to perform the work and be eligible for the Audience Choice Prize. The prize will be shared in the event of a tie, and amounts to $3,000.

Special Genre Prizes

The Jury will vote on the best performance of each of four genres: Nocturne, Etude, Polonaise, and Mazurka. Each of these prizes amounts to $750.

TRAVELING EXPENSES 

The pianists are responsible for their own traveling expenses. Live audition top scorers will be offered a scholarship for travel to Nashville to compete in the live competition.

ACCOMMODATION

The pianists are responsible for their own accommodations. There are, however, a limited number of host families available on a first-come, first-served basis to admitted competitors. The Competition will also provide a list of partner hotels (accommodation at the pianist’s expense) including those potentially offering a discount to competitors. 

PIANOS
Pianists will be provided with a list of available practice facilities secured by the Competition in Nashville, assignment sheets for the alloted practice times, and instructions to the locations that the competition has secured. A list of additional, self-paid practice facilities will also be provided.