First Amateur Edition — Nashville Chopin

October 9–10, 2026 · 32 competitors · Collins Alumni Auditorium,
Lipscomb UniversityOne University Park Drive,
Nashville, TN 37204 · awards Saturday, October 10

Results

The prizes of the jury

First PrizeJim Chou
Second PrizeCharl de Wet
Third PrizeBenjamin Alwes

The Rex & Edwina Gardner Genre Prizes

MazurkaMark Cannon
NocturneRobert Finley
ScherzoDiana Cusano
ImpromptuJonathan Shih

All the results, with the pieces.

The Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition (NICPC) presents its First Amateur Edition on October 9–10, 2026 at Collins Alumni Auditorium, Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tennessee. “This edition is a celebration of lifelong artistry. It is about community, inspiration, and the joy of sharing great music at a high artistic level,” in the words of NICPC Artistic Director and Jury Chairman Graciella Kowalczyk. The competition is open to amateur pianists age 35 and over who do not derive their principal source of income from piano performance, instruction, or composition. Applications closed on July 21 and the field was announced in August; accepted competitors receive their full details directly by email. Graciella Kowalczyk chairs the jury; the full panel is listed below.

Schedule

Performance times

Competition Dates: October 9–10, 2026 · Collins Alumni Auditorium, Lipscomb University, Nashville
Applications closed July 21, 2026 · Field announced August 8, 2026
Arrival and practice Thursday, October 8 · Departures Sunday, October 11

Thursday, October 8Practice rooms open at 12:00 p.m. Each competitor has a short designated time that afternoon to try the performance pianos. Orientation follows that evening in Choral Hall, directly across the hallway from Collins.
Friday, October 9 and Saturday, October 10All competition rounds. The awards follow on Saturday, after 3:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 11Departure day.

Every competitor has received a personal schedule. The running order is published here. The finalists. The results. Both days of the livestream, to watch again.

Venue

The First Amateur Edition takes place at Collins Alumni Auditorium, Lipscomb University, One University Park Drive, Nashville, TN 37204.

Competitors receive their full arrival details directly by email.

Collins Alumni Auditorium at Lipscomb University — Collins Alumni Auditorium, Lipscomb University

Jury

Graciella Kowalczyk
Jury Chairman; Artistic Director, Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition
French-born and Polish-raised, Dr. Graciella Kowalczyk has performed as a soloist in concerts and recitals across more than fifteen countries. From early appearances at Chopin's birthplace in Żelazowa Wola, her career has taken her to the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, the Sergei Rachmaninov Concert Hall in Moscow, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Bellini Conservatory in Palermo, the Kölner Philharmonie, and Fort Worth's Ed Landreth Auditorium, among venues throughout the Americas and Asia.
Elisabeth Pridonoff
Emeritus Professor of Piano, University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music
Elisabeth Pridonoff is internationally known as a pianist and pedagogue and for over three decades was on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Her students have won many prestigious awards and hold positions at institutions all over the world. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she earned MM degrees in piano with Adele Marcus and Sasha Gorodnitzski and in voice with Hans Heinz and Anna Kaskas.
Jerome Reed
Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Piano, Lipscomb University
He has given recitals and masterclasses throughout the U.S. and in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, China, Poland, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, England, Hungary, and Uruguay. He holds the D.M.A. and M.M. in piano performance from The Catholic University of America, where he was a student of Béla Börzörményi-Nagy. He also studied with Jeanne-Marie Darré at the Conservatoire de Musique de Nice and coached with Yvonne Loriod in Paris.
Robert Marler
Professor of Piano, Belmont University; Principal Keyboardist, Nashville Symphony
Dr. Robert Marler is a pianist, educator, and recording artist of international acclaim. He serves as Principal Keyboardist of the Nashville Symphony and Professor of Piano at Belmont University, where he mentors the next generation of performers.
Zsolt Bognár
Pianist, broadcaster, and host of Living the Creative Life
American pianist Zsolt Bognár has built a multi-dimensional career as a concert artist, broadcaster, and author. Bognár is best known as host of the acclaimed film series Living the Creative Life, whose more than 200 episodes feature artists including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yuja Wang, and Daniil Trifonov, and which has been profiled in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
Vladimir Petrov
Pianist; Laureate, Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition 2025
Laureate and audience prize winner at the sixty-third F. Busoni International Piano Competition (Italy, 2021), Vladimir Petrov has been celebrated as “one of the best pianists of his generation” (Viviana Aubele, Martin Wullich Journal). With roots in Russia, Petrov was raised from the age of three in Mexico, which he affectionately considers his homeland. Currently based in New York, he is pursuing a postgraduate degree at the Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Horacio Gutiérrez.
Joshua Izzard
Tiebreaker; Administrative Director, Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition
Joshua Izzard is an American pianist, investor, and technology finance executive. He debuted to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall, earned his MA at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and was an international competition prizewinner. He holds an MBA in quantitative finance and accounting from the University of Chicago and is a former hedge fund manager and model developer. He is Administrative Director of the Chopin in Cyprus and Chopin in Bohemia festivals and builds AI developer tools, among them the TermDeck, Mnestra and Rumen stack.