Breaking: China offers record $150,000 piano prize

China has just upped the ante in music contests with an unprecedented first prize for a piano contest winner.

The First China International Music Competition will be held in Beijing from May 4 to 21, 2019. Entry is by invitation only.

The competition president is Li-guang Wang, head of the China Conservatory of Music. The jury will consist mostly of professors, chaired by Juilliard’s influential Yoheved Kaplinsky.

UPDATE: we understand that no student of any jury member has been invited.

The final round will be accompanied by the Philadelphia Orchestra, with it music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

The general director is Richard Rodzinski, former head of the Van Cliburn and the Tchaikovsky competitions.