Unisa online - Italians dominate the semi-final round of the piano competition

The twelve semi-finalists of the 12th Unisa International Piano Competition have been announced.

They are Angelo Arciglione (Italy), Enrique Bernaldo de Quiros (Spain), Johann Blanchard (Germany), Sebastian Di Bin (Italy), Stanislav Khristenko (Russia), Heejae Kim (Republic of Korea), Pavel Kolesnikov (Russia), Christopher Janwong McKiggan (United Kingdom), Luka Okrostsvaritze (Georgia), Daniele Rinaldo (Italy), Lukáš Vondráček (Czech Republic), Gehui Xu (People’s Republic of China).

The third round starts on Thursday 26 January and will continue on 27 and 28 January. There are two sessions each day: 14h00 and 19h00. Two semi-finalists will each perform a full piano recital per session. A further elimination will take place on Saturday night, 28 January when the six finalists will be announced.

The first two rounds of the competition were well attended with around 250 people attending each session so far. The general opinion is that the standard is exceptionally high this year.

Tickets for the third round are sold only at the door at R30 for students and pensioners and R40 for adults.

The final round will take place on 31 January, 1, 3 and 4 February. Six finalists will each perform two different piano concerti with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Tickets for the final two nights have been sold out at Computicket but there are still tickets left for 31 January and 1 February.

The final round will be broadcast live by Radio Today on 1485 AM in greater Johannesburg, on DStv Audio Channel 169 nationally and streamed live on the internet from Radio Today’s website.

For more information please call the Unisa Music Foundation at 012 429 3311 or visit the website: www.unisa.ac.za/musicfoundation. 

*Story by Alet Joubert