The International Chopin Competition Announces Live Streaming of 18th Edition of the Event to the United States and Beyond
Seong-Jin Cho, 2015 international Chopin Competition Winner. Photo credit: Holger Hage
The International Chopin Competition is Embracing Technology Advances That Will Allow for Larger Listener Zones, Bringing the Contest to The U.S., Asia, Europe, and More
The International Chopin Competition announced in early November its new, eager embrace for advanced technology that will make the 18th edition of the competition accessible for people all over the world—including the United States.
The announcement—made at a special event in London hosted by the Chopin Society UK—noted that all rounds of the October 2020 competition will be live-streamed using 4k Ultra HD for the first time, making the ICC the first major classical event to use virtual reality. The hope? To enable viewers all over the world to experience the competition like never before.
With this new change comes the promise of virtual reality features as well as new “listener zones” that are being created across four continents—including a variety of cities spanning the globe—in order to bring together remote audiences for an immersive look at the competition. Further, the new technology will include the creation of a new, interactive web portal and mobile app to help provide a richer, digital experience for audiences worldwide.
Though the Chopin competition is one of the oldest—and one of the most prestigious—music competitions in the world, they’ve fully embraced the idea of ground-breaking innovations that can bring together music lovers of the world to fully immerse in the competition, which takes place on October 2-23, 2020.
“For the first time in history we are introducing virtual reality, the highest quality broadcasting and fully interactive digital and physical spaces so that music-lovers all over the world can fully immerse themselves in the exceptional music-making and drama of the International Chopin Competition,” said Dr. Artur Szklener, Director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, Warsaw.
“The international streaming of the last edition in 2015 attained 60 million views on YouTube alone. At the next edition in 2020 we hope to reach many more people in a variety of ways and ensure they enjoy the richest and deepest experience possible. We also hope to shape the history of pianism in the 21st century and once again celebrate Warsaw as the Chopin capital of the world.”
The competition will use virtual reality streaming, using a VR camera close to the pianist on stage. With this strategy, remote viewers will be able to experience performances from the pianist’s perspective on the stage of National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw. Anyone who has VR goggles at home will be able to watch the VR streaming at www.chopin2020.pl. For those who do not have VR goggles, the Competition is introducing special Listener Zones all over the world where music lovers can come together to share the virtual reality experience, and much else.
The Listener Zones – in cities across four continents including Moscow, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Seoul, Paris, London and New York – will be physical spaces where remote audiences can come together for an in-depth Competition experience including live broadcasts – in both traditional and virtual reality formats – audio commentaries from musicologists and stars of the piano world (in relevant languages), live concerts for local audiences, and more.
“The innovations that Dr Szklener has revealed today promise to bring the musicianship of some of the finest young pianists in the world and the music of Chopin to audiences in ways Chopin himself could only have marvelled at,” said The Lady Rose Cholmondeley, President of the Chopin Society UK which hosted the launch event.
“We are immensely proud to support the Competition in its endeavour to share Chopin’s music in this way, and we are greatly are looking forward to the next Competition in October 2020.”
Applications for pianists to enter the 2020 International Chopin Competition are open until December 1, 2019.
