Second Final Evening of the Ljubljana Festival International Competition – Piano 2026

This year’s 9th Winter Festival will be complemented by the Ljubljana Festival International Competition, featuring promising pianists from around the world. Following last year’s highly successful competition for brass quartets and quintets, the spotlight shifts this year to the piano. The first two rounds will consist of performances of Beethoven’s piano sonatas and selected Romantic and modernist works. The six top performers will then move on to the final stage, consisting of two evenings of performances of popular concertos from the Classical and Romantic eras, with orchestral accompaniment. The judging panel, which will choose the recipient of the main prize of €50,000, is chaired by Professor Emerita Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak and includes renowned pianists and teachers from Italy, China, the United States, Spain, South Korea, Israel, Ukraine, Ireland, France and Brazil. Special prizes will also be awarded for the best sonata performance, for the best interpretations from different stylistic periods and for the highest classified Slovene pianist.