The competition was founded by the Department of Culture of Moscow on the initiative of People's Artist of the USSR, President of the Moscow International Performing Arts Centre Vladimir Spivakov. The Artistic Director of the competition if Honorary Academician of the Accademia filarmonica di Bologna Alexander Romanovsky. Our main purpose is to discover and support talented artists in the field of piano performance, and to as well as to maintain and popularize the best achievements of the musical art. The compatition is named after Vladimir Krainev, who was himself a brilliant pianist and outstanding teacher and who brought up a whole galaxy of the brightest stars of our time.
This artistic contest takes place every two years with the motto “Listen to the Future” uniting cream of the cream among the new generation of pianists around the globe. The awards ceremony and winners Gala is held on April 1 – the Vladimir Krainev’s birthday – at the Svetlanov hall of the MIPAC with participation of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under Vladimir Spivakov.
Among numerous young performers contests the Krainev competition occupies a special place. The judging system is as transparent as possible - all scores given by the jury members are published. In each age category the jury choses just one winner and all other finalists become laureates without sharing the prize-winning places.
A very important feature of the competition is the system of support of the laureates following the competition. The special prizes from the jury members and organizers are scholarships and study programs, recitals and performances with symphony orchestras both in Russian and abroad with the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under Vladimir Spivakov that give a true start in life to the most gifted young artists.
The two competitions held in 2015 and 2017 became big musical events.
The first competition took place in 2015. More than 60 young pianists aged between eight and eighteen from Russia, Japan, Italy, China, Vietnam, Republic of Korea, Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Belarus, DPR Korea and Costa Rica applied. All performances were evaluated by the authoritative international jury. The winners were Japanese Shio Okui in the junior group and Daniil Kharitonov in the senior group.
The jury of the second competition in 2017 dealt with 122 young musicians’ applications from Russia, China, Armenia, Japan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Italy, North Korea, Georgia, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Serbia, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Canada and Israel. The First “Discovery” Prize in the junior category went to 12-year old Jang Hung Choe form DPR Korea and the senior group Grand Prix went to 16-year old Russian Timophey Vladimirov, the student of the Central Music School at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
The third competition will take place from March 26 to April 1, 2019. Its main innovation is an additional age group appearance: now students aged up to 22 years old can take part in it.
The applications will be received until October 31, 2018.
