The three Finalists of the 2015 Honens Piano Competition were announced this morning: Luca Buratto (Italy / age 22), Henry Kramer (United States / age 28) and Artem Yasynskyy (Ukraine / age 27). One of these talented musicians will be named the 2015 Honens Prize Laureate and win the world’s largest prize of its kind—$100,000 (CAN) and an artistic and career development program valued at a half million dollars.

New York, New York, United States., September 8, 2015 – (PressReleasePoint) – The pianists advance to the Competition Finals, which take place at Jack Singer Concert Hall at Arts Commons in Calgary on September 10 and 11. Each pianist performs twice with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier. The Honens Prize Laureate and recipients of the Raeburn Prizes will be announced at an awards show following the Finals on Friday, September 11. The Competition Finals are streamed live at honens.com/livestream, cbcmusic.ca and French on-line broadcaster medici.tv.

“I can’t remember any edition of the Competition at which we’ve heard such an evenly matched high standard of performance,” said Stephen McHolm, Honens’ Artistic Director. “It’s clear that the best and most unique emerging concert pianists now choose Honens.”

The Competition’s Second Jury, which ultimately chooses the Honens Prize Laureate, includes pianists Alessandra Ammara, Janina Fialkowska and Pedja Muzijevic; Jeremy Geffen (Director, Artistic Planning at Carnegie Hall), Charles Hamlen (Artistic Advisor, Orchestra of St. Luke’s and former head of IMG Artists), Paul Hughes (BBC Symphony Orchestra General Manager), and Costa Pilavachi (Universal Music Group International’s Senior Vice President of Classical A&R).

In conjunction with the Competition, Honens also presents a variety of concerts during the ten-day festival, including performances by the Gershwin Piano Quartet (September 8), 1992 Honens Laureate Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (September 9), a late-night ‘Bison Noir’ jam session (September 10), a narrated Storytellers concert for family audiences featuring Paddington Bear’s First Concert (September 12), and a free outdoor concert of chamber music at Central Memorial Park (September 12).

Tickets range in price from $10 to $95 and are available online at honens.com or by calling the Honens Box Office at (403) 299-0140. Discounts are available for youth under age 18, ‘A440’ members aged 18 to 39, and seniors aged 65 or older. Passes, offering tickets at 25% off regular price, are available.

Honens discovers, nurtures and presents Complete Pianists—21st century artists for 21st century audiences. Calgary philanthropist Esther Honens dreamed of discovering and launching the careers of the world’s most promising pianists. In 1991, she established the Honens Foundation with a gift of $5 million, creating a legacy for musicians and music-lovers around the world. Today, the Honens Piano Competition takes place every three years as part of the Honens Festival—Canada’s International Festival of Piano. The Honens Prize for Piano—$100,000 CAN and an artistic and career development program valued at a half million dollars—is the largest prize of its kind.

The 2015 Honens Piano Competition is presented by TD Bank Group, the 2015 Honens Festival is presented by Nexen Energy, a CNOOC Limited company; Lead Partner is TransAlta Corporation; Supporting Partners are RBC Foundation and Sir Jack Lyons Charitable Trust. Other Partners include: Arts Commons, Avenue, Calgary Herald, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, CBC Radio 2, CJSW, Deluxe Design Group, ecentricarts inc., Enbridge Inc., medici.tv, Pattison Outdoor Advertising, RGO, SHAW TV, Sunesis Consulting Inc., The Banff Centre, The Fairmont Palliser, Velvet Energy Ltd and WAX Partnership Inc. Honens also thanks Jaguar / Land Rover Ottawa, Masters Gallery, Nicole Gourmet Catering, Norton Rose Fulbright, Our Daily Brett, Philip Chong Flower Bar, Renaissance Wine Merchants Ltd, Sidewalk Citizen Bakery, Teatro Ristorante; and industry partners Calgary Downtown Association, Calgary Hotel Association, Travel Alberta and Tourism Calgary. Official Pianos: Fazioli / Michael Lipnicki Fine Pianos, Steinway & Sons / Steinway Piano Gallery Calgary. Public and Foundation Partners include Calgary Arts Development Authority / City of Calgary, Calgary Board of Education, Calgary Foundation, Alberta Foundation for the Arts / Government of Alberta, Alberta Lottery Fund, Department of Canadian Heritage, Harry & Martha Cohen Foundation and Rozsa Foundation.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

THE COMPLETE PIANIST Honens discovers, nurtures and presents Complete Pianists—21st century artists for 21st century audiences. The Competition’s mission is to identify talent that is unusual, imaginative and informed – an artist not limited to displays of virtuosity but one who is capable of thoughtful, expressive music-making, and is ready for a professional career. Honens sees the Complete Pianist as a consummate communicator and collaborator, a risk-taking explorer, a dreamer. Through performance and programming choices, he/she expresses and interprets ideas from a wide cultural context with keen imagination, informed and seasoned by a fascination for life outside the practice studio. The Complete Pianist inspires the heart and engages the intellect. Pianists taking part in the Honens Competition must also express—through their stage deportment, program design and interviews with arts journalists—sensitivity to contemporary culture and a willingness and ability to communicate effectively with today’s audiences.

THE FINALISTS

Luca Buratto | Italy | Age 22
Luca Buratto made his debut in 2003 at age ten in the Sala Verdi of the Conservatory of Milan, performing music by his great grandfather Renzo Massarani on Holocaust Remembrance Day. He has since appeared with Milan’s I Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi and Magdeburgische Philharmonie, and in recital in France, Italy and Switzerland. Buratto has received top prizes in several competitions, including third prize in the 2012 International Robert Schumann Competition (Zwickau) and the special “Acerbi” prize, awarded to a distinguished Finalist at the Shura Cherkassky International Piano Competition (Milan). He also took part in the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and the 2014 Gina Bachauer International Artists Competition. After obtaining his piano Diploma under Edda Ponti at the Milan Conservatory, he earned his Masters at Bolzano Conservatory with Davide Cabassi. In 2013, after studies with William Grant Naboré as a Theo Lieven Scholar, he received his Master of Advanced Studies from the Conservatory of Lugano. Buratto’s favorite composer is Schumann and his interests range from physics and American post-modern literature to soccer and jigsaw puzzles. He lives in Milan.

Henry Kramer | USA | Age 28
Henry Kramer gave his Alice Tully Hall (New York) recital debut earlier this year after being named winner of the 2015 William Petschek Recital Debut Award from The Juilliard School. In recent seasons, he has performed with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony and Portland Symphony Orchestra (Maine), and made his European debut in recital at the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam). As chamber musician, Kramer has been featured in performances at Lincoln Center, as part of the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, at La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest! and, most recently, at the Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland, where he was the recipient of the Tabor Foundation Award. As part of a recent Ravinia Steans Music Institute tour, he performed at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston) and the Morgan Library (New York), and travelled to Havana, Cuba as a cultural ambassador. Kramer holds a Master of Music and Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Robert McDonald and Julian Martin. He recently completed his Artist Diploma with Boris Berman at the Yale School of Music, where he received the Charles S. Miller Prize for most outstanding first-year pianist. He is now pursuing his doctoral studies at Yale. Kramer enjoys being active and keeps moving with yoga, Pilates, running, swimming and alpine skiing.

Artem Yasynskyy | Ukraine | Age 27
Artem Yasynskyy was born in Donetsk, Ukraine into a family of professional musicians. At age seven he became a student of Albina Oryshuk at the Special School for Gifted Children in Donetsk, and later continued his musical studies at the Donetsk State Musical Academy. Since 2010, he has studied with Patrick O’Byrne at the University of Arts in Bremen. Yasynskyy has won prizes at several major international piano competitions, including the Gina Bachauer, Sendai, Gian Battista Viotti, Horowitz and the First German Competition of Polish Music. Earlier this year, he won the Cincinnati World Piano Competition’s Gold Medal. He has performed at festivals including Bremer Musikfest, the Maggio Piano Festival Vercelli, the Summer Night Music Festival of Kiev, the Festival “Days of Slavic Culture” in Rome and Hamburg’s Polish Music Festival and has made appearances in Australia, Japan, South Korea, the United States and throughout Europe. Yasynskyy loves delving into biographies of important cultural and historic personalities. He can also be found behind the lens of a camera making his own impressions of the world around him.