Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor –

Piano fans will be in heaven next week when the reinvigorated and expanded San Antonio International Piano Competition brings to town some of the best pianists in the world, both famous and well-established, and emerging young artists from several countries, hoping to win fame and medals.

Renamed the Gurwitz San Antonio International Piano Competition in honor of founder Ruth Jean Gurwitz who died in 2015, the event has been in the hands of Musical Bridges Around the World since 2017 when the board of the previous presenting entity asked MBAW to take over the management of the multi-faceted event.

“The first thing we did was to brainstorm about how to adapt the rather academic, classical music competition to fit MBAW’s mission,” said MBAW’s founder and CEO, Anya Grokhovski, herself a distinguished pianist. “Our core mission is about cultural diversity and we had to reshape the competition to fit that ideal.”

To that end, new elements were introduced in the requirements and structure of the competition rounds. One new thing is a requirement that contestants play a piece by a Spanish or Latin American composer in honor of the city’s heritage, as well as compositions originating from their native countries.

In addition, a new piece was commissioned from San Antonio composer Ethan Wickman that the three finalists will be asked to play in the third round of competition, together with guest artists and members of the famed Silk Road Ensemble, Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and American percussionist John Hadfield. What’s more, the piece leaves room for improvisation, which is a completely novel idea in classical music.

And the changes don’t stop there. For the first time in the competition’s history, the three finalists will perform live with the San Antonio Symphony conducted by music director Sebastian Lang-Lessing at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.

So, who is competing for the gold, silver and bronze?

There are 12 of them, pianists between the ages of 18 and 32, who were chosen from an original field of 76 applicants from 21 nations. Five are from Russia – plus one Russian-Canadian – three are from S. Korea, and one each from China, Ukraine and Italy. All are already accomplished artists in their own right. Grokhovski would prefer to see a wider range of countries represented but some cultures cultivate certain art forms more than others, so she wasn’t too surprised by the outcome of the “blind” pre-selection process.

“I am very excited,” she said. “The level of participants is very high, the highest level of piano artistry.”

The young performers will be judged by a jury of big names in the piano world, including star pianist Olga Kern; pianist Yaron Kohlberg, the president of the Cleveland Piano Competition; piano professor Boris Slutsky of the Peabody Conservatory, and Maestro Lang-Lessing though the latter will not be a judge at the final concert that he will be conducting.

The three winners – gold, silver and bronze medalists – will take home hefty monetary awards, ranging from $25,000 to $10,000, in addition to trophies designed by San Antonio glass artist Gini Garcia. All competition concerts are free except the last one at the Tobin.

Also free is the Grand Opening All-Star Judges Showcase scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 26 at 3 p.m., at the Pearl Stable, a truly unique opportunity to see so many virtuosi in one place together.

And guess, who is the honorary chair of this musical splendor? None other than the beloved former Spurs star David Robinson, who is a music lover and a flute player. We hear there are billboards around town featuring him sitting by a piano and smiling broadly.

And in another first, the new Gurwitz is now recognized by the World Federation of International Piano Competitions, an organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.

“I think it’s an honor for San Antonio to have a music competition of this caliber,” noted Grokhovski.

                         To see the schedule and get tickets go to misicalbridges.org