Confirmed: Chopin Competition is off

As we warned before the weekend, a combination of political, health and cultural calculations have forced the deferral of the world’s foremost piano competition to October 2021, at the earliest. There was great concern in Warsaw that jurors and contestants would simply not turn up.

Here’s the aoouncement:

The 18th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition postponed till 2021

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 18th Chopin Competition has been moved to 2021. The Competition will take place at the Warsaw Philharmonic from 2 to 23 October 2021.

Poland’s Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Piotr Gliński, together with Artur Szklener, Director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, decided to move the Competition from October 2020 to October 2021 after additional consultations with Poland’s Ministry of Health.

In the words of Artur Szklener: “We are sparing no effort to make sure that the 18th Chopin Competition will be as good as we all expected and that it will continue the great tradition forged over the decades. The Fryderyk Chopin Institute is working intensely to make the move from 2020 to 2021 run as smoothly as possible”.

The list of pianists accepted for the eliminations will remain the same. All the tickets purchased for the sold-out event remain valid.

All the details regarding the new schedule of the Competition will be made public on 14 May 2020.