Inaugural Hotchkiss International Piano Competition

1. The Inaugural Edition of the Hotchkiss International Piano Competition is open to pianists of all nationalities 10 to 18 years of age on May 15, 2026.

2. The competition will be held in two rounds: Preliminary Round by video submission, due on April 1, 2026, and Final Round, which will take place in person at the Hotchkiss School, 11 Interlaken Road, Lakeville, CT 06039, USA from May 15 to May 17, 2026.

3. Applicants must complete the Hotchkiss International Piano Competition online application form and upload the following files via Slideroom no later than April 1, 2026:

• Artistic bio in English
• a recent high-resolution digital photo
• a copy of the candidate’s passport or equivalent photo ID
• a copy of the parent/supervising adult’s passport or equivalent photo ID if the applicant is under 18 years of age
• Detailed program for both rounds (Preliminary & Final) with exact timings
• Online video submission for Preliminary Round

4. Incomplete or unpaid applications will be disqualified.

5. The final and exact number of participants selected is subjected to the discretion of the jury.

6. The decision of the jury is final and shall not be subjected to review or appeals.

7. The results of video Preliminary Round will be announced on April 16, 2026 via email and social media. 

8. The application fee is not refundable.

9. Acceptance of Rules: By applying, candidates agree to all the rules and conditions of the competition.

10. All competition rounds will be recorded, photographed, and livestreamed. By participating in The Hotchkiss International Piano Competition, candidates grant The Hotchkiss School the right to capture and use candidate’s image, voice, and likeness in photographs, video, and audio recordings. Candidates agree that the Hotchkiss School may use these materials for promotional, educational, and marketing purposes in any media format, without any compensation or prior approval.

11. Minors: Contestants under 18 must be accompanied by an adult who assumes full responsibility for them during the event. If this adult is not a parent or legal guardian, a signed consent form from the parent or guardian must be included with the application.

12. Travel and Visas: All travel and accommodation expenses, including flights, lodging, and visa fees, are the sole responsibility of the participant. Participants must independently manage their visa applications and verify specific requirements with their respective embassy or consulate. Upon request, the competition organizers will provide an official invitation letter to assist with the visa application process.

13. The Hotchkiss School shall not be held liable for any personal injury, property damage, loss, or other incidents sustained by contestants in connection with their participation in the event. Liability is strictly limited to the standard premises liability insurance provided by the competition venue for general visitors. By participating, contestants expressly acknowledge and assume all other risks associated with the competition.

14. The name of the candidate’s teacher/professor will not be disclosed in the program for the jury or throughout the competition.

15. If a candidate is currently studying with a member of the jury, that jury member must recuse themselves and will not be permitted to vote for their own student.

16. Rules may be subject to change without notice.

1. For both rounds (Video Preliminary and Final) candidates must choose a free program within the time limit allotted for each category. The final round for all categories must contain at least two pieces of contrasting styles. One piece from the preliminary round may be repeated in the final round.

2. Time limits for the Video Preliminary Round are: 

• Category A: 8 (minimum) to 10 (maximum) minutes
• Category B: 10 (minimum) to 15 (maximum) minutes
• Category C: 15 (minimum) to 20 (maximum) minutes

3.  Time limits for the Finals Round are: 

• Category A: 8 (minimum) to 10 (maximum) minutes
• Category B: 15 (minimum) to 20 (maximum) minutes
• Category C: 25 (minimum) to 30 (maximum) minutes

4. All works must be performed from memory.

5. Selected finalists may change the final repertoire until April 22, 2026.

6. Individual movements or selected parts of works such as sonatas, partitas, or suites are permitted.

7. Candidates must perform original solo works written for the piano. No arrangements, alternative editions, or modified versions will be accepted. The competition highly recommends the use of Urtext editions.

Preliminary Round – Video Submission

1. Videos cannot use any kind of editing or processing. One static camera must be used, always showing the keyboard and hands in one continuous shot. Multi-camera videos are not allowed. No fade-in or fade-out should be added to the video. Edited, processed, or multi-camera videos will be automatically disqualified.

2. Videos must have been recorded within the past six months. Candidates may submit each piece on a separate file (one file per piece) or may submit both pieces in one continuous file with brief pauses between each piece (no cuts or edits). Candidates are allowed to submit live recordings from a concert or another competition, as long as they conform to the video guidelines outlined in item No. 1.

3. All video submissions must be uploaded directly to Slideroom, following the specific platform instructions. Videos submitted by email, DVD, or any other online sharing service will not be accepted.

4. It is the responsibility of the candidates to ensure that submitted videos have proper viewing permissions and are fully functional.

5. The final and exact number of participants selected for the final round is subject to the discretion of the jury.

6. The results of the Preliminary Round (video submission) will be announced on April 16, 2026 via email and social media.

Final Round – Live at The Hotchkiss School

1. Final Round will be held at the Katherine M. Elfers Hall, Esther Eastman Music Center at The Hotchkiss School. The Final Round is open to the general public and will be livestreamed.

2. The performance order will be determined by the draw held at the Opening Ceremony on Friday, May 15, 2026.

3. Candidates will be stopped by the jury if the time limit is exceeded.

4. Each candidate will be allowed to try the Fazioli 308 concert grand for five minutes prior to the competition round.

5. Candidates will have access to 2 hours/day of piano practice up to their competition performance slot.

Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. She was subsequently selected by The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Phillips Collection, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2009, she launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters.  The following year, she was appointed Director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, a position she held for the next decade. In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo became artistic directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR in 2020. They were named recipients of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Award for Extraordinary Service in 2021 for their efforts during the pandemic. Most recently, Gloria released two albums - her Gloria Chien LIVE from the Music@Menlo LIVE label and Here With You with acclaimed clarinetist Anthony McGill on Cedille Records. Gloria received her bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and is a Steinway Artist.

With a vivid onstage presence, dazzling technique, and keen musicality, pianist Olga Kern is widely recognized as one of the great artists of her generation, captivating audiences and critics alike.

In 2001, Kern launched her U.S. career at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, winning a Gold Medal—the only woman in the last 50 years to do so. She has since performed extensively with top-tier ensembles, among them the St. Louis Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), Czech Philharmonic, and Filarmonica della Scala. She has also scored successes with Tokyo’s NHK Symphony, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, Stuttgart Philharmonic, and Pittsburgh Symphony. She was a soloist on widely acclaimed U.S. tours with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine; and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in 2018, 2019, and 2022.

Kern performs riveting recitals throughout the world, playing in places such as New York, Fort Worth, Minneapolis, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, and Italy as well as with renowned organizations including The Gilmore Piano Festival, Chamber Music San Francisco, Hollywood Bowl, Ravinia Festival, the Minnesota Beethoven Festival, Bad Kissingen (Germany), Radio France Festival Montpellier, and others. In the 2022-23 season, Olga appeared with the Dallas Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, Ireland’s National Symphony Orchestra, and Colorado Symphony. She performed recitals at American Pianists Association Conference in Indianapolis and the International Piano Festival of Oeiras in Portugal as well as in Milan, Italy; Virginia Beach; Chicago; and San Francisco.

Kern has served as a jury chairman of several high-profile competitions, including her own, the Olga Kern International Piano Competition, of which she is artistic director.

A dedicated educator, she has been on the piano faculty of the Manhattan School of Music since 2017, and in 2019 she was appointed the Connie and Marc Jacobson Director of Chamber Music at the Virginia Arts Festival. She also established “Aspiration,” a foundation that provides financial assistance to musicians around the world. Kern is a Steinway Artist. Her well-regarded discography includes works of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Brahms, and Shostakovich.

Pianist Álvaro Teixeira Lopes is the Artistic Director of the Santa Cecilia International Competition (CISC) and the Santa Cecília International Festival, an invited professor at Aveiro University, and Director of Curso de Música Silva Monteiro (CMSM). He attended the Conservatório de Música do Porto and continued his studies in Vienna and Paris with Paul Badura-Skoda, Noel Flores, and Marian Rybicky. The recipient of several prizes, he developed intense national and international acclaim as a soloist and chamber musician and has been invited to play in some of the most prestigious festivals internationally. 

Artistic director of several festivals, Lopes has directed numerous master classes in Portugal, France, Brazil, Taiwan, China, Spain, and Italy, as well as being an invited professor at the Brecia International Festival and Summer Academy. He is frequently invited to join panels of piano competitions and has been a jury member of the Orbetello International Competition, Rospigliosi International Piano Competition, Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition, Iturbi International Piano Competition, Compositores de España, Isidor Bajič International Piano Competition, Pro-Piano, Concours International de Piano de Lyon, Concours International d’Epinal, César Frank International Competition, Cleveland Virtualoso, Maestro Arts Taiwan, Porto Piano International Competition, Festival Internacional de Piano do Rio de Janeiro, and many others all over the world. 

Lopes serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors of Casa da Música in Porto, Portugal.

Born in Cuba, Leonel Morales has lived in Spain since 1991, where he has been awarded many international prizes, including First Prize in the Guerrero Foundation International Piano Competition in Madrid and the Second Prize at Jaen International Piano Competition. He graduated from the University of Havana where he studied under Frank Fernandez, a student of renowned Moscow Conservatory professor Victor Merzhanov, firmly establishing Mr. Morales in the Russian pianist tradition. A professor of piano at the Conservatorio Superior de Castellón, Spain, Mr. Morales has performed all over the world, including the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in New York City. He has toured with various orchestras, including the Spanish National Orchestra, Spanish Radio and TV Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic of Galicia, Symphonic Orchestra of Bilbao, the Symphonic Orchestra of Hamburg, Frankfurt-Oder Orchestra, RAI National Orchestra of Turin, among many others. While on tour with the Spanish National Orchestra, he has been praised by The Washington Post for his “...extraordinary interpretation and power.” 

Morales’ ability and virtuosity have frequently been shown during his concert performances with the Spanish National Orchestra, Spanish Radio and TV Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic of Galicia, Symphonic Orchestra of Bilbao, Philharmonic Orchestra of Malaga, Symphonic Orchestra of Tenerife, Symphonic Orchestra of Murcia, the Symphonic Orchestra of Hamburg, Portuguese, Frankfurt-Oder Orchestra, RAI National Orchestra of Turin, Adana, Istambul and Ankara Symphonic Orchestras of Turkey, Virtuosos Orchestra of Berlin Philharmonic, Philarmonic Warsaw Orchestra, Dresdner Philharmonie, Philharmonic Orchestra of Bergen, Symphonic Orchestra of Ljubljana. 

Morales has become member of the “Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría”, in Seville (Spain). He is probably one of the only pianists in the world to have performed all Rachmaninov concerti, including the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, during two consecutive nights.

Morales and his wife are co-founders of the international piano competition “Spanish Composers” in Spain, International Piano Competition Maria Herrero, International Piano Festival Masterclass “Leonel Morales,” and International Piano Course for Children and Teenagers. He is also a guest professor at the Hotchkiss in Florence Music and Arts Festival, in addition to serving as a juror at major international piano competitions. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Tasto D’Agento prize in Alexandria, Italy, reserved for pianists with distinguished international concert careers. 

As both chair of The Hotchkiss School Music Department and an accomplished professional pianist, Fabio Witkowski’s commitment to developing musical students of all levels while simultaneously challenging exceptional musicians to continue to grow as artists and performers has made Hotchkiss a leader in attracting exceptional musicians and teachers.

A native of Brazil, Witkowski began his piano career at the age of 6. Since then, he has been performing extensively throughout the world. Witkowski has given solo recitals in the Czech Republic, Brazil, Italy, China, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Boston, Hartford, Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. He has also appeared as a soloist with the Santo Andre Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra L’Estro Armonico, the Hartt Symphony Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the São Bernardo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Paulista Symphony Orchestra. In Brazil, he received the first prize at the renowned Villa-Lobos Piano Competition, as well as the Lorenzo Fernandez Piano Competition. He has been awarded the first prize at the Connecticut State Music Teachers Association’s Young Artist Piano Concerto Competition, and received third prize, as well as an award for the best Stravinsky performance, in the Ibla Grand Prize International Piano Competition, in Italy.

He has performed at the Tanglewood Institute, the Liszt and Wagner International Festival, in Italy, the Prague International Piano Festival, Festival de Musica de Girona, in Spain, and the Liszt Festival, in Rio de Janeiro. For the past four years he has been a guest artist and piano faculty at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy, having shared the stage with renowned pianists such as Bobby Roux, Ian Robson, Luiz de Moura Castro and Paul Badura-Skoda. He appeared in chamber recitals with the Grammy-Award winning Emerson String Quartet, the Fine Arts Quartet, the Adaskin Trio, and with Mr. Robert deMaine, principal cellist of the Detroit Symphony.

Witkowski holds a cum laude BM and MM from the Hartt School of Music, where he studied under the guidance of Luiz de Moura Castro. He is currently the chairman of the Hotchkiss School Music Department, where his teaching efforts have included him for three years in the “Who is Who Among America’s Teachers” publication.

Some of his past engagements include concerts at Bryant Park and Union Square Park, in New York City, both sponsored by the New York Times’s Young Performers Series. Witkowski also performs regularly with his wife, pianist Gisele Nacif Witkowski. They have appeared together in prestigious settings such as the Gardens of Villa Rufolo, in Ravello, Italy, at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C. and at Carnegie Hall, in New York City. According to the New York Concert Review, the duo “shows marvelous rubato and tremendously clean playing, with a lovely sense of tone.”

Witkowski has been acclaimed by the critics as “One of Brazil’s most promising talents,” who “never fails to impress the audience,” and whose playing “is able to conjure up the devilish colors of an inferno as well as portray an ethereal paradise...” According to the Hartford Courant, “Mr. Witkowski revealed himself as an accomplished pianist, providing many passages of bravura, sensitivity, and pearly agility.”

Critically acclaimed by the New York Concert Review as having given "the most genuinely fascinating recital debut in many a moon," for her New York solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall, pianist Gisele Nacif Witkowski has been performing extensively throughout Brazil, United States, China, and Europe. She is a piano instructor at Hotchkiss.

Witkowski has performed in some of Brazil’s most prestigious venues. Sponsored by Funarte, she completed an extensive recital tour of northern Brazil, intended to promote the Brazilian piano repertoire, which included the capital cities of Brasília, Manaus, Boa Vista, Belém, Macapá, São Luiz, and Terezina. Other recital engagements have included the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Espírito Santo, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, and the American states of New York, Washington, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Virginia, and New Jersey, as well as many performances in Italy and Czech Republic. Recent engagements included concerts at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, and at Union Square Park (NY), sponsored by the New York Times Young Performers Series.

She has appeared as guest artists and professor in several music festivals, including the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy for 13 years, the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival and the Hotchkiss Summer Portals in the US, and the São João del Rey, Ourinhos, and Londrina Music Festivals in Brazil.

Her orchestral engagements include numerous appearances with the Piracicaba Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Rio Claro, the Hartt Symphony Orchestra, the São Bernardo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with renowned chamber groups including the São Paulo String Quartet, the Fine Arts Quartet, and the Amerigo Trio formed by New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow.

Witkowski also performs regularly with her husband, pianist Fabio Witkowski, as the Witkowski Piano Duo. They have appeared together in prestigious settings such as the Gardens of Villa Rufolo, in Ravello, Italy, at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as several recitals in the United States, Europe, and Brazil. One of their latest projects has been to perform Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with the Bowen McCauley dance company, celebrating the 100 years anniversary of this masterpiece. About this collaboration, The Washington Post said, “Fabio and Gisele Witkowski played the four-hand piano arrangement as if they possessed the very paws of Fate.”

Mrs. Witkowski began her piano studies with her parents at age four. She graduated from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory and received her Bachelor’s degree from the Santa Marcelina College where she studied with Daisy de Luca and Isabel Mourão. She became the first prize winner of several piano competitions including the "The Villa- Lobos National Contest" (ES), the "Soloist Contest" (MG), the "Eleventh Young Instrumentalists Brazilian Contest" (SP), the "Concerto Competition of the Santa Marcelina College" (SP), the "Young Soloists Contest of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra" (SP), and was a recipient of the "Artists International's 1998 Twenty-Sixth Young Artists Piano Award" (NY), among others. She has also appeared on various radio and TV broadcasts including WQXR in New York and TV Cultura in São Paulo.

Mrs. Witkowski received a full scholarship from the Brazilian Government to study at the Manhattan School of Music with Ms. Nina Svetlanova, where she received her Masters degree. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the Hartt School of Music where she studied under the tutelage of Luiz de Moura Castro. She is currently a member of the piano faculty at the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut. Her piano students have received numerous awards in regional, national, and international piano competitions.