The Preselection Jury of the Bartók World Competition–Composition 2026 has shortlisted 16 pieces, including several works by Hungarian composers, for consideration by the International Jury, chaired by the world-renowned Swedish composer Anders Hillborg.

A total of 136 composers from 36 countries submitted 144 short works for string quartet to the composition round of Liszt Academy's Bartók World Competition 2026.

This year is for composers, the application form is now available on the website.

Jeonghwan Kim was awarded with the first prize of €22,000 after Sunday's orchestral final at this year’s Bartók World Competition organised for pianists at the Liszt Academy in Budapest.

Russian, Spanish, Korean and Hungarian pianist made it to the orchestral final of the competition.

The following 6 pianist will perform in the solo final on 5 September, according to the decision of the international jury.

Considering the high standard of the competitors, the international jury decided that the following 13 contestant will perform in the semi-finals on September 3 and 4.

On Sunday evening, 31 August, the youngest entrant, fifteen-year-old Chinese Michael Jiang, drew the number of the contestant who will be the first to perform, according to the tradition of the institution's competitions: it will be Anastasiia Kliuchereva from Russia, and she is followed by in alphabetical order.

The prestigious international jury of Liszt Academy's competition, which will be held in September for pianists with a total prize fund of more than 51,000 euros, will be chaired by Yoheved Kaplinsky, head of the department at the Juilliard School in New York.

Among the applicants are 12 from Japan and 11 from Hungary, but there are also entries from Turkey, Indonesia and Canada. No minimum age limit has been set by the organising Liszt Academy, with the youngest competitor being 15.

With a total prize fund of more than 51,000 euros (20 million forints), the competition for pianists will open on 3 March, and the repertoire will naturally focus on Bartók's piano works.

The first prize of 5,000 euros was awarded to Korean composer Lee Hanuri, the second prize of 3,000 euros to composer Kim Shin, also Korean; and the third prize of 2,000 euros went to Hungarian composer Mátyás Papp, whose works was selected by an international jury led by world-renowned British composer Thomas Adès.

The preliminary jury of this year's competition for composers has selected 16 works - including a Hungarian piece - for the international jury, chaired by the world-famous British composer Thomas Adès.

The application form has been published on the website, which means that young composers can apply for the composition category of the Bartók World Competition 2024 from now on. 

Composer-conductor Thomas Adès chairs the International Jury for the 2024 Composers’ Competition, an event with a total prize fund of €10,000 and organised by the Liszt Academy, which expects to receive applications from 18 January.

Video interview with Maya Alexandra Kasprzak, the third prize winner German- Polish-Japanese violinist, who talks about her connection to Bartók’s music.

Conductor Péter Halász, first conductor (Kapellmeister) at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and principal guest conductor at the Hungarian State Opera, is a regular guest at many domestic and foreign institutions. The artist was a member of the jury at the Bartók World Competition for the first time this year, which helped him gain extremely important impressions in several ways.

Video interview with the winner of the 2023 Bartók World Competition, Moldavian violinist Lilia Pocitari, who talks about her experience and her performances at the competition and her plans for the near future.

At the Bartók World Competition, the jury was looking for what a young artist could do to capture our hearts, says world-renowned violinist-conductor András Keller, with whom we talked about this year's event, the problems and challenges of a competition, and more.