Along with the competition rounds, there will be several concerts performed by past laureates and guest artists, with programming built around this year's theme: "At the Heart of Nations: A Celebration of the Creative Spirit Around the World."
The countries represented include a surprise from our hemisphere.
"There's a connection between Chopin and Haiti," Ragagini says. Haitian pianist and composer Ludovic Lamothe, who died in 1953, was dubbed "the black Chopin." In addition to music by the rarely encountered Lamothe, piano works by Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak are scheduled. Also on tap is the premiere of a recently unearthed transcription of a Chopin etude.
