Esther Honens International Piano Competition

Formerly known as the Esther Honens International Piano Competition, the Honens International Piano Competition is a classical piano playing competition held in Calgary, Canada. It took place every four years from 1992 to 2000, and then switched to a three-year cycle thereafter. The current top cash award totals $100,000 (Canadian dollars). The next competition will take place August 30 to September 8, 2018.

In 1991, philanthropist Esther Honens established the Honens International Piano Competition Foundation in her hometown of Calgary, with a gift of $5 million. Honens also presents Canada's International Festival of Piano each year in Calgary in addition to nationwide learning and outreach programs.

Application submissions are typically starting a year before the Calgary component of the competition, until approximately 7 months before. Applicants are evaluated on their proposed competition programming, experience relative to age and confidential reference letters. Fifty pianists are chosen to advance to the quarterfinals by an application screening jury made up of four individuals.

Quarterfinalists perform a 40-minute public recital in Berlin, London and New York. An Australasian location may be selected depending on the number of candidates accepted from the region. Should an Australasian quarterfinals location not be scheduled, candidates from this region perform in the next closest location. Additional travel support is provided.

Each pianist must perform music for solo piano from the repertory submitted in his/her application and take part in a ten-minute English-language interview by an arts journalist. Quarterfinals recitals and interviews are recorded on digital video under as similar conditions as possible. The Honens recording team includes at two audio-visual engineers and Honens' director of career and competition planning. The function of the latter is intended to ensure that conditions are as uniform as possible and to note the state of instruments, the acoustic qualities of the rooms in which pianists perform, and any unusual circumstances (e.g. extreme temperatures in the venues, etc.).

Ten pianists are chosen to advance to the semifinals by the first jury, consisting of four music professionals from the classical music industry.

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