Maxim Kinasov takes a bow after his finals’ performance in the 2019 HIPCC (photo: John Cole).

Kinasov headlines at launch concert for 2022 HIPCC

Hastings International Piano starts the countdown to next year’s Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition with a launch concert featuring former prize-winner Maxim Kinasov on Friday 8 October at the White Rock Theatre. Nick Terdre reports.

Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition (HIPCC), one of the town’s premier cultural events, returns in 2022 after a year’s absence when its home, the White Rock Theatre, was closed due to the coronavirus. It will take place from Thursday 24 February to Saturday 5 March, 2022.

A launch concert will be held at the White Rock Theatre on Friday 8 October featuring Maxim Kinasov, who took second prize at the 2019 event, and the European Union Chamber Orchestra.

“We are thrilled to welcome our friends from the European Union Chamber Orchestra to Hastings to perform a fantastic programme of popular classical works, including one of Mozart’s most popular piano concertos, K.488,” said Ian Roberts, managing director of Hastings International Piano, the charity which produces both the piano concerto competition and the Hastings International Piano Festival.

“This will feature as soloist our 2019 piano competition prize-winner Maxim Kinasov.” The evening also includes works by Holst, Faure and Tchaikovsky.

The European Union Chamber Orchestra.

Successful entrants for the 2022 HIPCC are now being selected from video auditions by a panel appointed by Prof Vanessa Latarche, president of the jury, who is head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music in London, and one of whose students won last week’s Leeds International Piano Competition, another of the world’s major competitions.

Prof Latarche, who joined the competition team last year to curate the competition, will oversee record numbers of entrants through the audition process, as well as presiding over the esteemed international jury whom she has invited to join her in Hastings.

The Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition is an internationally renowned biennial event for young concert pianists from around the world. When last held in 2019, it attracted 170 applicants from across the globe, 40 of whom came to compete in Hastings during February and March. Their prize: the opportunity to perform with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on a two-night final and to win a first prize of £15,000 and concert engagements across the UK and overseas.

Free tickets

Hastings International Piano have announced a free ticket programme, under which children and their parents from Hastings and the surrounding areas will receive free tickets to this concert and next year’s competition, a fundamental principle of its plans to make music accessible to all young people, it says.

“We are also proud to be able to continue to offer free tickets to children and young people to our concerts and the piano competition via our education programme, that promises to deliver world-class audience opportunities in our town, so that every child and young person has the opportunity to enjoy exceptional live music throughout the year,” Roberts said.

Everyone with school age children can book free tickets for up to three children and two adults.

Launch Concert for Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition featuring pianist Maxim Kinasov with the European Union Chamber Orchestra White Rock Theatre, White Rock, Hastings TN34 1JX. Friday 8 October, 7pm. Tickets £27-£62 inc of booking fees. Both paid and free tickets available here.

Also in: Music & Sound