23 pianists from three continents will take part in the 61st edition of the Jaén International Piano Contest.

This prestigious contest of the City Council has started today with the draw of the order of intervention of the participants and the inaugural concert by Josep Colom.

The 61st edition of the Jaén International Piano Contest, organised by the Jaén City Council, began today with the draw for the order of intervention of the pianists in this contest, in which the final number of contestants participating in the contest has been known. In total, there will be 23 young performers, from eight countries on three continents -China, South Korea, Spain, France, Japan, Poland, Russia and the United States-, who will compete in this edition for inscribing his name in the track record of this prestigious contest that is taking place until May 3 in the capital of the province.

The provincial deputy, Pedro Bruno, has presided this ceremony together with the president and the secretary of the jury of this 61st edition, Albert Attenelle and Ernesto Rocío, respectively. After this event, the prestigious pianist Josep Colom, from Barcelona, has performed works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Ravel and Falla in the opening concert held at the Infanta Leonor Theatre of Jaén.

Tomorrow, at 6:00 pm, the first eliminatory event of this contest will be taking place until the afternoon of next Saturday, April 27, in which we will know the name of the contestants who pass to the second qualifier of the contest. The Chinese pianist Qian Yong will open this first phase in which the following pianists are participating: Sitong Meng, Lvjie Zhang and Xiaopei Xu, from China; Sang Ah Park, Kie Wouk Lim, Hyeonjun Jo and Minchul Shin, from South Korea; Álvaro Mur Rodríguez, Juan Carlos de la Blanca Elorza and Carlos Goikoetxea Cancho, from Spain; Nicolas Bourdoncle, from France; Genki Takai, Kana Ito, Risa Ohkubo, Nanako Kurita and Mayuko Obuchi, from Japan; Mateusz Rettner, from Poland; Alexander Koryakin, Alexander Strakhov, Kristina Zelenina and Arsenii Mun, from Russia and Sun-A Park, from the United States.

In this first test, which the public can attend for free, each of these young pianists must interpret in a maximum time of twenty minutes a total of three works, which will have to be a prelude and fugue of the well-tempered key of Bach; a study by Bach, Chopin, Liszt, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Bartók, Stravinsky or Ligeti and, finally, a work to be chosen among those made by Debussy, Ravel, Bartók, Janácek, Messiaen, Ligeti, Barber or others composers of importance of the twentieth century.

As in previous years, the City Council of Jaén will cover the accommodation expenses of the contestants and will grant those who pass this first test, and take part in the second eliminatory phase, travel bags of 300 euros in order to facilitate their stay in the capital of Jaén during the development of the contest. This figure will be increased to 400 euros for those who qualify for the third phase of this contest and do not obtain any of the six main awards of this international piano competition, which this year will distribute again 60,000 euros in prizes.