The special Worthing welcome to highly-talented young musicians from around the world began on Monday 7 May 2018. The fourth tri-annual Sussex International Piano Competition launch evening at the pier’s Southern Pavilion brought together the organisational team and artistic director and competition founder John Gibbons with the competition organisers, the competitors and their hosting families and individuals.
Gibbons, who conducts the competition’s Grand Final Day orchestra, the fully professional Worthing Symphony, once again stressed the integrity of the competition’s conduct, as a declared antidote and reaction to the dubious and undercover practices commonly found in classical musical contests.
Touching on one area of nudges and winks, the entry process is policed along strict anonymity. “Every competitor,” Gibbons assured the launch audience, “sends a CD of their playing, which is then presented to the judges unnamed and just given a number. So those are accepted are entering the competition completely on merit.”
There are only 18 competitors this year – the smallest SIPC field so far – from an original selection of 24. There have been six withdrawals, including one for a hand injury, plus said Gibbons, “a couple who were ill and others who have had problems obtaining visas owing to the political situation.”
Illness has removed Maria Luc, who is from Chichester, but there is Sussex interest in Yasmin Rowe, whose home is Yapton but is based presently in Melbourne, Australia. There is representation from, among others, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Latvia, Russia, Uzbeckistan, and the east and west coasts – and mid-west – of the United States.
Host families include at least eight first-timers, and have come forward mainly from the Worthing area. Their hospitality and the spirit and strict openness of the SIPC ethos shape the competitors’ experience for subsequent word to be taken around the classical music globe.
This year’s competition organisation, headed by Gibbons with assistant John Gander while steered administratively by former co-director Tim Chick, has brought about the 2018 competition thanks to the industry of hosting guide Gill Tucker and her new colleague Jill Silversides.
The Jury includes past winner Arta Arnicane (Latvia, 2010) and Varvara Tarasova (Russia, 2015) and finalist Olga Paliy (Ukraine, 2013). Yuki Negishi (Japan) returns, having been a juror since the inaugural 2010 SIPC. Completing the Jury are Patrick Allen, Toh Chee-Hung, Judith Clark and Dennis Lee. Allen’s behind-the-scenes work and roles in British classical music include being founder The Britten Sinfonia.
The Quarter-Finals run today (Tuesday, 11.30am, 2.45pm, 6pm) and Wednesday (same times) when the semi-finalists will be announced at around 8.30pm. William Alwyn’s five-minute technical and artistic test piece The Devil’s Reel confronts each contestant. At the last SIPC, Varvara Tarasova won the prize for this, and the Audience Prize, on the way to First Prize in the Grand Final, in which all three finalists each perform a concerto with WSO and Gibbons. She swept the board after playing Chopin’s Concerto No 2. Will someone emulate her this year?
The Semi-Finals take place on Friday 11 May (1pm, 6pm), the Grand Final on Sunday (2.45, result ceremony at around 6pm). In view of the tests of the Quarter- and Semi-Finals, the Concerto performance will not be the all-governing factor and everything takes place in Worthing Assembly Hall featuring its Steinway piano and renowned acoustic. Tickets from Worthing Theatres include an inclusive one for the three initial days of the two early rounds.
Richard Amey