DATES: March 10 – 17, 2025
AGE: 18 through 30
LOCATION: Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, USA
COMPETITION PIANOS: Steinway & Sons graciously provides the grand pianos for the Competition and its related events. The Steinway grand piano Model D will be available to the 2025 competitors for action testing on Saturday, March 8 at the Round I and Round II competition venue.
COMPETITION ROUNDS: The 2025 Hilton Head International Piano Competition will consist of four rounds of competition.
- Round I 20 Competitors
- Round II 20 Competitors
- Round III – Semi-Finals 6 Competitors
- Round IV – Finals 3 Competitors
COMMISSIONED WORK: The HHIPC has commissioned a new solo work of 5 to 7 minutes in length from Lowell Liebermann. All 20 competitors are required to perform the commissioned work during their Round I or Round II recitals. Score will be provided to competitors upon confirmation of their acceptance of our invitation to perform in Hilton Head, and for this piece only, pianists may use the score.
COMPETITOR SELECTION JURY: The Competitor Selection Jury will evaluate, without discussion, all video audition files on the basis of commonly accepted musical criteria. In mid-November, 2025, the Jury will then select twenty (20) competitors to compete in the 2025 Hilton Head International Piano Competition. The Jury will also provide the competition administration with a rank ordered list of alternates. The Jury’s decision is final.
COMPETITOR SELECTION JURY
- Alan Chow – USA, Chair
- Marian Hahn – USA
- Antonio Pompa-Baldi – Italy/USA
COMPETITION JURY
- Simone Dinnerstein – USA, Chair
- Marina Lomazov – Ukraine/USA
- HaeSun Paik – South Korea
- André-Michel Schub – USA
- Terrence Wilson – USA
- Amy Yang – China/USA
- Wei-Yi Yang – Taiwan/USA
[NOTE: Any pianist who has studied regularly with any of the above jurors within the last five years is NOT eligible to apply for the 2025 HHIPC. Please check Eligibility guidelines HERE for complete details before starting your application.]
COMPETITOR ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE DATES: All competitors are expected to arrive on either Thursday, March 6 (for those traveling from international locations), or Friday, March 7 (for those traveling from U.S. locations) and to depart on Tuesday, March 18, 2025.
[NOTE: For any pianists accepted to both HHIPC and the Cliburn screening auditions, best efforts will be made to accommodate you to participate in both, in cooperation with our Cliburn colleagues.]
HOST FAMILY ACCOMMODATIONS: Each competitor stays in the home of a Host Family from arrival on March 6 or 7 to departure March 18, 2025, who provides lodging, food, all local transportation, and a grand piano for practice. If a competitor wants to stay in the Hilton Head area for any days falling before or after the period of March 6 – 18, they will be responsible for arrangements and payment for their own lodging, food, and transportation for those extra days.
TRANSPORTATION: The Competition will reimburse flight costs for all twenty (20) competitors as follows: up to $500 to those flying within the US and up to $750 to those flying internationally. (All local ground transportation during the competition to be provided by each competitor’s host family.)
2025 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
- Saturday, March 8 (day): Action testing of competition piano;
- Saturday, March 8 (eve): welcome party for competitors and host families, drawing for performance order
- Monday and Tuesday, March 10 & 11: Round I
- Wednesday and Thursday, March 12 & 13: Round II & School Ambassador Program
- Friday, March 14: Master Classes and School Ambassador Program; practice time for Semi-Finalists
- Saturday, March 15: Round III – Semi-Finals
- Sunday, March 16: One-on-One Conversations with the Judges in the morning for non-finalists; rehearsals with the HHSO for the finalists
- Monday, March 17: Round IV – Finals (followed by Awards Ceremony & Reception)
PRIZES
- First Prize: $20,000; with additional prizes to include: a recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall during the 2025-26 season; return engagement with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra and other performance opportunities; professional management/career development services from HHIPC Director, Steven Shaiman. (Additional prizes may be added.)
- Second Prize: $10,000
- Third Prize: $5,000
- Medalist Prizes (3 remaining semi-finalists): $2,000
- Jim Neumeister Memorial Prize (Best performance of Commissioned Work): $1,000
- Sascha Gorodnitzki Memorial Prize (Judges’ discretionary award for most promising non-finalist): $1,000
- Possible Additional Prizes TBC