# International Piano Competition of Orléans

The International Piano Competition of Orléans (French: Concours International de Piano d'Orléans) is an international piano competition dedicated exclusively to music of the XXth-XXIst centuries that is held biannually in Orléans, France. The only of its kind as of 2022., the competition has been founded in 1994 by French pianist and pedagogue Françoise Thinat, is a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions and a partner of Busoni Competition.
For every edition, a piece is commissioned from one of internationally established composers as an obligatory piece for the competitors. Those who have written for the competition up till 2022 are Eric Tanguy, Patrick Burgan, Thierry Escaich, Pierre Jodlowski, Edith Canat de Chizy, Philippe Hurel, Jacques Lenot, Jérôme Combier, Philippe Hersant, Hèctor Parra, Pascal Dusapin and Philippe Manoury. The jury has included, over the years, such names as Idil Biret, Claude Helffer, François-Frédéric Guy and Unsuk Chin.

## History

In 1989 Francoise Thinat has founded an association which was supposed to promote piano music of the XXth century, and the first edition of the competition took place in 1994. She imagined
   «an ideal competition, with a unique programme, an open repertoire, a collegial jury ... an age limit which would encourage «a second breath», without discouraging very young talents...».
Starting 1998, every participant should include a work by a young composer of choice, and a composition prize is awarded to the composer of the piece deemed best by the jury. Six years after, in 2004, the first edition for children «Brin d'herbe» took place

## Laureates

| Year | 1st Prize | 2nd Prize | 3rd Prize | Composition Award André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud |
| 1994 | Shinji Urakabe Japan | Hideki Nagano Japan | Ananda Sukarlan Indonesia | |
| 1996 | Fabio Grasso Italy Thomas Hell Germany | | Rita Kinka Hungary | |
| 1998 | Toros Can Turkey Ami Fujiwara Japan | Ami Fujiwara Japan | Maria Stembolskaya Russia | Unsuk Chin South Korea Franck Krawczyk France |
| 2000 | Saori Mizumura Japan | Andrea Corazziari Italy | Alexandre Pirojenko Russia | Muhiddin Dûrrûoglu-Demiriz Belgium |
| 2002 | Winston Choi Canada | Nino Jvania Georgia | Makoto Ueno Japan | Vykintas Baltakas Lithuania |
| 2004 | Francesco Schlime Luxembourg | Reto Reichenbach Switzerland | Ya-Ou Xie China | Kenneth Hesketh UK |
| 2006 | Wilhem Latchoumia France | Prodromos Symeonidis Greece | Ermis Theodorakis Greece | David Rakowski USA |
| 2008 | Florence Cioccolani France | Antal Sporck Netherlands | Adam Marks USA | Mayoko Fukami Japan Vera Ivanova Russia USA Thierry Huillet France |
| 2010 | Christopher Falzone USA | Yejin Gil South Korea | Anaël Bonnet France | Adam Roberts USA |
| 2012 | Christopher Guzman USA | Andrew Zhou USA | | Christopher Stark USA |
| 2014 | Imri Talgam Israel | Aline Piboule France | Kathrin Isabelle Klein Germany | Didier Rotella France Nicolas Mondon France |
| 2016 | Takuya Otaki Japan | Marianna Abrahamyan Armenia | Philippe Hattat France | Philippe Hattat France Matthias Krüger Belgium |
| 2018 | Maroussia Gentet France | Hyeonjun Jo South Korea | Miharu Ogura Japan | Miharu Ogura Japan Hyeonjun Jo South Korea |
| 2020 | Mikhaïl Bouzine Russia Germany | Dmitry Batalov Russia | Chae-Um Kim South Korea | Tetsuya Yamamoto Japan |
| 2022 | Lorenzo Soulès France | Chisato Taniguchi Japan | Chi Ho Han South Korea | Matthieu Acar France Miharu Ogura Japan |