22 pianists compete in contest that lost its way

The Clara Haskil competition in Vevey, Switzerland, had a brilliant run of early winners – Christoph Eschenbach in 1965 and Richard Goode (1973), then a gap until Steven Osborne in 1991, Till Fellner in 1993 and the tragic Mihaela Ursuleasa (pictured) in 1995.

Since then, the competition has witheld its prize on several occasions. It has failed to produce a blazing talent since the turn of the century.

The competition resumes in Switzerland next week. It has chosen these 22 to compete in person.

Antonin Bonnet, France
Tom Carré, France
Ayumu Ibaraki, Japan
Myunghan Kim, South Korea
Juhee Lim, South Korea
Ionah Maiatsky, France
Vincent Martinet, France
Akihito Maruyama, Japan
Wataru Mashimo, Japan
Marcel Mok, Germany
Yumeka Nakagawa, Japan
Martin Nöbauer, Austria
Oscar Paz-Suaznabar, USA
Antoine Preat, France
Yena Roh, South Korea
Viktor Soos, Germany
Kaoruko Takagi, Japan
Ryohei Tanaka, Japan
Yiheng Wang, China
Maina Yokoi, Japan
Seho Young, USA
Tom Zalmanov, Israel

All participants, candidates, host families, musicians and administrative staff will have been fully vaccinated by August 10, 2021. The jury president is Christian Zacharias. The others are: Catherine d’Argoubet, Finghin Collins, Hisako Kawamura, Eric Lavanchy, Aleksandar Madžar, Hiroko Sakagami.