Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading musician of his era, one whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation".
Krystian Zimerman is a Polish concert pianist, conductor and pedagogue who has been described as one of the greatest pianists of his generation. In 1975, he won the IX International Chopin Piano Competition.
Yundi Li, also known mononymously as Yundi, is a Chinese classical concert pianist. Yundi is especially known for his interpretation of Chopin, Liszt and Prokofiev. He is considered one of the greatest contemporary interpreters of Chopin.
The International Chopin Piano Competition, often referred to as the Chopin Competition, is a piano competition held in Warsaw, Poland. It was initiated in 1927 and has been held every five years since 1955. The competition is one of the founding members of the World Federation of International Music Competitions. It is also one of the few competitions devoted entirely to the works of a single composer, in this case, Frédéric Chopin. The competition is currently organized by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute.
Garrick Olaf Ohlsson is an American classical pianist. In 1970 Ohlsson became the first, and remains the only, competitor from the United States to win the gold medal awarded by the International Chopin Piano Competition, at the VIII competition. He also won first prize at the Busoni Competition in Bolzano, Italy and the Montreal Piano Competition in Canada. He was awarded the Avery Fisher Prize in 1994 and received the 1998 University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ohlsson has also been nominated for three Grammy Awards, winning one in 2008.
Rafał Blechacz is a Polish classical pianist who rose to fame after winning the XV International Chopin Piano Competition in 2005.
Emanuel "Manny"Ax is a Grammy-winning American classical pianist. He is known for his chamber music collaborations with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinists Isaac Stern and Young Uck Kim, as well as his piano recitals and performances with major orchestras in the world.
Janusz Olejniczak was a Polish classical pianist, academic teacher and actor. He made an international career as a pianist, especially with the piano music of Chopin which he played on modern and period instruments. He portrayed the composer in the 1991 film Blue Note, and played piano music in the 2002 film The Pianist, also appearing as the hand double.
Daniel Vnukowski is a Polish Canadian pianist and classical music broadcaster.
Zygmunt Krauze is a Polish composer of contemporary classical music, educator, and pianist.
Valentina Igoshina is a Russian classical pianist. She has won several international piano competitions.
Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń is a Polish pianist of Bulgarian descent.
Đặng Thái Sơn is a Vietnamese-Canadian classical pianist. In 1980, he won the X International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, becoming the first pianist from Asia to do so. He has received particular acclaim for the sonority and poetry in his interpretations of Chopin and the French repertoire.
Anna Borysivna Fedorova is a Ukrainian concert pianist. Fedorova performs as soloist, chamber musician and with symphony orchestras in the major concert halls of the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, UK, Ukraine, Poland, the US, Mexico, Argentina, and parts of Asia. Fedorova is a David Young Piano Prize Holder supported by a Soiree d'Or Award and Keyboard Trust.
Racha Arodaky is a Syrian/French pianist born in Damascus. She studied at the Conservatoire de Paris in the class of Dominique Merlet. After receiving her premier prix de conservatoire at age 16, she went to study at the Moscow Conservatory with Yevgeny Malinin. She has also studied with Murray Perahia.
Bruno Peltre is a French pianist whose performance career was suddenly stopped by a health problem in 2001.
Izabella Jadwiga Zielińska was a Polish pianist and pedagogue with one of the longest artistic biographies in Poland, starting back in 1935.
Jean-Yves Clément is a French essayist, poet and organizer of festivals.
Witold Wnuk is a Polish music impresario and cellist. As well as the cello, he plays the piano and drums. During his career he taught in the Middle-East, and has organised many competitions and festivals in his native Poland.
Bruce Liu is a Canadian pianist. Born in Paris and raised in Montreal, he began to play the piano at eight years old and was performing by the age of eleven. In 2021, he rose to widespread renown after winning the XVIII International Chopin Piano Competition.
