HGS Residents Association Piano Prize

The North London Festival is very grateful to the Hampstead Garden Suburb Residents Association for sponsoring the 2024 competition. The Festival is grateful to Felix Appelbe who sponsored this competition until 2023.

Tuesday 30 April 2024

First Prize – £750, Second Prize – £250

Adjudicator – James Kirby

Entry fee £40, Closing date – 22 March 2024

This Piano Prize has been a component of the North London Festival since 2013. It is both a celebration of creativity centred around the piano repertoire, and a platform for talented pianists to exhibit their technical and artistic prowess.

The 2024 competition will be at Hampstead Garden Suburb Free Church, Central Square, NW11 7AG, and is open to pianists currently studying in the Senior Department of any UK Music College, Academy or Conservatoire.

As the Competition is very popular, we recommend early entry.

Entrants are to perform two contrasting pieces by different composers with a time limit of 15 minutes. Entrants must also provide copies of the music for the adjudicator.

A spoken introduction to the musical programme is an integral part of the performance. It should include an announcement of each item and composer as well as giving details and points of interest about the music, or the background to the circumstances of, or reasons for, its composition. Notes may be used as long as they do not interfere with the sense of communication with the audience.

Both the spoken introduction and the performance must be within the 15-minute time limit. Both the introduction and the subsequent pacing and sequence of the programme will be taken into account in the adjudication.

Every entrant will receive a written adjudication sheet and a certificate of participation.

If an entrant has been a pupil of the Adjudicator in the year prior to the Festival or is well-known to the Adjudicator, they should contact the Section Administrator before entering.

At approximately 6 pm, there will be a short concert in the Free Church, at which winners and outstanding players may be invited to perform. When you enter, please indicate whether you would be available to perform, should you be invited to do so. Availability to perform at the evening concert will have no influence over the result; the Adjudicator will not be aware of whether entrants can perform at the concluding recital.

For full details, download the syllabus for piano classes using the link to the right or below.

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

Please click on the link below for how to apply. The first time that you use the new entry system, you will need to register.

Closing date for HGS Residents’ Association Piano Competition is 22 March 2024

2021, 2019 & 2018 APPELBE PIANO PRIZE PERFORMANCES

View extracts from the 2021 Appelbe Prize-winning performances, recorded by the players themselves.

View the performances from the 2019 and 2018 Appelbe Piano Prize Competitions together with interviews with Felix Appelbe and the adjudicators who explain what they are looking for from winning entries.

Section Administrator

Janice Twiselton

64 Powys Lane
London
N13 4HS

Tel: 020 8886 7237

Email: janicetwist@talktalk.net

Adjudicators

James Kirby

As a soloist and chamber musician James performs regularly throughout the UK and Europe. His recital work includes appearances at major concert series in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Holland, the Czech Republic, Bermuda, Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Malaysia and in the UK at Wigmore Hall and the Edinburgh and Aldeburgh festivals. Having studied at the Moscow Conservatoire (during which time he reached the semi finals of the International Tchaikovsky Competition) he frequently returns to perform in the former Soviet Union. Highlights have included performances at the Sakharov Festival in Nizhny Novgorod and the Omsk Festival. His orchestral performances include concertos with the Moscow, Khazakh and Belorussian Symphony Orchestras, and the Arad and Oradea Philharmonic Orchestras (Romania), and the English and Scottish Chamber Orchestras, at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Symphony Hall, Birmingham, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire and Astana Opera House. He has performed both Brahms Concertos in Russia and Romania.

He has been a member of the Barbican Piano Trio since 1992, performing regularly at Wigmore Hall and in major UK festivals and concert series, and throughout Europe and the USA. Highlights include Carnegie Recital Hall and many cycles of Beethoven’s complete Piano Trios including the Master Concert Series at Wigmore Hall. The Trio’s repertoire consists of over seventy works and their discography includes trios by Lalo, Tchaikovsky, Taneyev, Rachmaninov and Schnittke.

James has worked with the Vanburgh Quartet, BBC Singers, Lydia Mordkovitch and the mezzo soprano Sarah Connolly and has made several recordings for Chandos. He is a dedicated teacher and enjoys posts at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff and Royal Holloway, University of London. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Rachmaninov Institute, Tambov, Russia where he makes frequent visits to perform concertos, give recitals and masterclasses and lead chamber music courses.

He has served on the Juries of several international Piano competitions, notably in Romania, Latvia, Russia and Slovenia and gives many masterclasses, both in the UK and overseas, most recently in China and Hong Kong. He is in considerable demand as an adjudicator and is a member of the ABRSM examining panel, which has taken him to Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Indonesia and many European countries.

Syllabus

View the Section syllabus

Download