3RD HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION: Finalists named

After a gruelling Quarter Final round at the 3rd Hong Kong International Piano Competition, the six finalists have been named. Unusually for a competition, the six pianists will first perform chamber music in the Semi-Finals where there will be no elimination. Instead their scores will be carried into the Grand Finals where the pianists will perform Howard Blake's Long Speech after Silence, a specially commissioned solo work for this competition, and a concerto with the Hong Kong Philharmonic conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

The finalists and their chamber work / piano concerto are as follows (in order of performance):

ELMAR GASANOV (Russia)

Schumann Piano Quintet

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1

GIUSEPPE ANDALORO (Italy)

Brahms Piano Quintet

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2

TSAI MIN HAO (Taiwan)

Schumann Piano Quintet

Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3

KEINA SATO (Japan)

Schumann Piano Quintet

Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3

CHEN HAN (Taiwan)

Dvorak Piano Quintet Op.81

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3

ANN SOO JUNG (South Korea)

Dvorak Piano Quintet Op.81

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.3

The Semi Finals take place on 26 & 27 October, and the Finals from 28 to 30 October 2011.