This 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.
We will not be running this competition in 2022 as so many Music Festivals have been unable to run in 2021. Therefore, the 2023 competition will be open to the winner of the top senior piano award at any Music Festival held between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2022. A few festivals may be able to make two entries in 2023, one for 2021 and one for 2022.
Entries will only be accepted if submitted through 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.
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.