Over 1,100 pianists take part in Shanghai international competition

More than 1,100 amateur and professional piano players participated in the finals of the 12th Shanghai International Youth Piano Competition held in Shanghai's Songjiang district from Wednesday through Saturday.

The contestants in the finals were selected from more than 60,000 participants from all over the country.

Pianists from China, the United States of America, Russia, Belgium, Israel, Australia were invited as juries for the competition held by the China Association of Social Economic and Cultural Exchange annually since 2008 as well as to give open classes and play solo concert.

Award winners in the finals of different age groups will tour for the first time this year to cities including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Fuzhou, Nanning, Shenyang, Zhengzhou, Changsha and Wuhan.

Lu Haijun, director of the organization committee of the competition, said that the founding of the competition was a joint aspiration of dozens of domestic pianists and piano professors to find and cultivate potential talents and boost the development of piano art in the country.

"We've been sticking to the long-term goal to maintain the competition at a high standard of international level, and strive to let the young piano talents stay in tune with the world's latest academic frontiers in the field and direction of different piano cultures without the need to go abroad," he said.