With one week to go until the curtain opens on the 23rd Provincial Council of Valencia’s Iturbi Prize, to be held between 4 and 13 June at the Palau de la Música, the winners of the last edition of the Valencia International Piano Competition are triumphing in the best competitions in the world. The Italian Elia Cecino is one of the semi-finalists in The Cliburn, the prestigious American competition held every four years to coincide with presidential inaugurations; and Rachel Breen is a finalist in the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, which is taking place these days at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.
The importance of the Iturbi Competition was highlighted by the pianist Joaquín Achúcarro, Chairman of the Jury, during the presentation of the 2025 edition last Monday in the Provincial Council’s Palau dels Scala, “since I have been coming to Valencia, the Iturbi Competition has not stopped growing and we now have a great competition; I feel sorry for those of us who have to decide who is going to win”. The winner will be chosen from one of the 20 pianists of 11 nationalities who will begin to compete from next week. “The only indication we give to the jury is that they choose the best, without fear of leaving a prize vacant because the decision may seem unpopular”, said the Provincial Councillor for Culture, Paco Teruel.
The Artistic Director of the Iturbi Prize, Ana Guijarro, also referred to the quality of the candidates, who have had to overcome “an exhaustive and rigorous selection process that has led us to be left with 20 candidates from among 200 applications from pianists from 40 countries”. In Guijarro’s opinion, “the best demonstration of the level of the Iturbi Competition and the musical talent that has passed and continues to pass through Valencia, without going any further, is the trajectory of the three pianists who competed in the Grand Final of the last edition, and who are currently triumphing in the best piano competitions in the world”.
From Europe to the United States
Among the competitions organised in Europe, one of the most renowned is the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, a competition that encompasses different musical disciplines such as violin, cello, voice and, of course, piano. The Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels is currently hosting the final of the piano competition, which includes the American Rachel Breen, who came third in the Iturbi Competition in 2023. With the musical support of the Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by Kazushi Ono, Rachel competes with the best international piano talents in search of the prizes that will be awarded next Saturday.
From Brussels we cross the pond to see Elia Cecino, winner of the last edition of the Iturbi Competition and semi-finalist in The Cliburn, the competition that brings together the great emerging talents of international pianism these days in Texas, and which is looking for a successor to Yunchan Lim, the 18-year-old South Korean who won in 2022. Cecino, who stands out for his artistic and interpretative quality, seeks glory at The Cliburn alongside pianists from the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and other countries such as Poland, Germany and Canada.
And back on the European continent, we cannot forget the success of Anthony Ratinov in the last edition of the Busoni, which took place last year in the Italian town of Bolzano. Ratinov, runner-up in the 2023 Iturbi Competition, also won silver in another of the great competitions on the international piano circuit. At the Busoni Competition, the American pianist was recognised for his precision, inner energy and elegance, with a great performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 that was praised by critics and jury alike.
The Valencia International Piano Competition was founded in 1981 and has been held 22 times to date, every two years, alternating in recent years with the Iturbi Festival, where the best pianists of the day take part. The Iturbi Prize is a member of the Alink-Argerich Foundation, which brings together most of the international piano competitions around the world.
