Big finale this week

PANAMA. For the past week, the III International Piano Competition has been going on at the National Theater in Casco Viejo. The competition is organized by the International Contests Foundation (Fundacion Concursos Internacionales) headed by the Panamanian pianist Dr. Jaime Ingram.

Participants aged 18-30 from all over the world have been competing to make the cut and win one of the cash prizes.

15 participants hailing all the way from Russia, Taiwan, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, among other countries were chosen to come to Panama to take part in this year’s competition.

Although eliminatory rounds and semi-finals have been going for a week, Monday and Tuesday’s events will be of most interest to piano lovers, seeing as the top participants will give their best one last time to position themselves as one of six winners.

Monday’s final round includes a highly impressive repertoire. Pianists will delight the audience with a work of three to seven minutes length of their choosing, from any composer born in the second half of the 20th century.

Additionally, they will perform a transcription or a paraphrase done by great pianists like Liszt, Godovsky, Busoni or Rachmaninoff or works by other great composers, that will certainly delight the audience given that they are seldom performed because of their great difficulty.

There will be seven renowned personalities from the music world as judges: Andreas Bach (Germany), Martin Canin (United States), Sequeira Costa (Portugal), Natalie Michailidou (Greece), Aquiles Delle Vigne (Argentina), Leslie Wright (Ecuador) and Ramzy Yassa (Egypt).

On Tuesday October 28, the six winners will be announced.

The competition’s prizes include: $20,000 and a gold medal for the 1st place, $15,000 and a silver medal for 2nd place, $10,000 and a bronze medal for 3rd place, smaller monetary gifts and certificates for the next best two performers, and a special prize for the audience’s favorite, for $1,500.

The organizers have set aside seats for music students from the National Music Institute, from INAC and the University of Panama in order to encourage their continued involvement in cultural events. For the rest of us, tickets are available on Blockbuster for $22 - $27.