Emanuel Trophy Piano Competition

Saturday 13 April 2024, from 1:00 pm

Venue: Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church, Central Square, NW11 7AG

Adjudicator: Timothy Barratt

Entry fee: £55

This competition is for a Challenge Trophy and a cash prize of £750 – If there are four contestants or more, the Trophy will be awarded to the winner to be retained for one year. If there are six contestants or more, there will be a further cash prize of £150 to the runner-up.

The Emanuel Trophy Piano Competition is the Festival’s top piano competition and is one of the most prestigious competitions within the festival movement. It was founded in 1985 by Emanuel Cedar (1916-2000). “Manny” entered North London Music Festival piano competitions as a young pianist, became a Festival Council Member in 1960 and Festival Chairman in 1975.

The 2024 competition will be open to the winner of the top senior piano award at any UK Music Festival held between 1 January and 31 December 2023. Entries will only be accepted if submitted via the Secretary, or Section Secretary, of the Festival represented. If the top prize-winner has already been entered to represent another Festival then the Secretary should, if possible, enter the next best pianist.

The general rules for this competition are in the Syllabus which can be downloaded from the link to the right.

Nominations for the Emanuel Trophy should be made using the entry form that can be downloaded to the right. The completed form should be sent to the Section Administrator by post or email. The closing date is Friday 1st March 2023.

 The Grand Piano chosen and hired by the Festival for these performances is supplied and maintained by Steinway & Sons, London.

We have a video containing extracts from prize-winning performances for the 2021 online Emanuel Trophy Piano Competition. This is currently being edited and will be reloaded as soon as possible.

The video below shows performances from the 2019 Emanuel Trophy Piano Competition.

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