The Pope has spoken, sorry I mean The Jury has spoken

These were the 20 pianists I had picked for Stage III (in order of appearance):

Feng Zhang

Hoang Pham

Alexey Yemtsov

Tomoki Kitamura

David Fung

Fernando Altamura

Mariangela Vacatello

Jose Menor

Takashi Sato

Elizaveta Ivanova

Konstantin Shamray

Tatiana Kolesova

Daniil Tsvetkov

Ran Dank

Charlie Albright

Sean Chen

Sergei Saratovsky

Ryan McEvoy McCullough

Eric Zuber

Yekwon Sunwoo.

Here are the 20 picked by the Jury:

Hao Zhu, Hoang Pham, Alexey Yemtsov, Tomoki Kitamura, David Fung, Fernando Altamura, Mariangella Vacatello, Jose Menor, Christopher Devine, Takashi Sato, Miyeon Li, Yoonsoo Rhee, Konstantin Shamray, Tatiana Kolesova, Daniil Tsvetkov, Ran Dank, Charlie Albright, Sean Chen, Sergei Saratovsky & Eric Zuber

Getting 16 out of 20 wasn’t too shabby, I reckon. Just a little peeved that my namesake Feng Zhang did not make it, despite his lovely Mozart, Schubert-Godowsky songs, Liszt Feux follets and outrageous Alkan. R.M.McCullough should also raise his head high for his efforts – I must check out that Magin left hand Prelude. Commiserations also go to Elizaveta Ivanova and Yekwon Sunwoo, whom I thought had done enough. Thank you for your music.

For me, the big surprise was Christopher Devine. I must have sorely misjudged his efforts. From now on I should pay closer attention to him and drink caffeinated coffee. I’m also pretty pleased to be hearing more Spanish music from Hao Zhu. Well done to both Korean ladies Miyeon Lee and Yoonsoo Rhee – Jesus really saves.