This week I’m in Chicago adjudicating at the Chicago Amateur Piano Competition. Judging starts today but this competition offers an impressive events roster, a fairly unique concept amongst competitions, which runs in tandem, therefore proceedings actually started last night.

Fifty-five talented pianists will play a short programme over the next two days. The finals will take place on Friday for the two-round competition. They will also occur on Saturday morning for the three-round competition. However, events kicked off last night with a ‘Meet the judges’ interview which was live streamed on Youtube. Russian/American pianist Konstantin Soukhovetski, American pianist and composer, Adam Neiman, and myself will adjudicate over the next few days and this interview was designed to introduce competitors to their judges and provide an opportunity to ask questions about our lives.

You can watch the whole interview. Sadly, the connection was lost at the beginning. Therefore, around 10 minutes of the opening has been cut, but I hope you find it interesting.