2 October is the opening day of the long-awaited 18th edition of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition. Once again, this unique event can be seen on YouTube, and all concert broadcasts can be watched live on the Chopin Institute’s channel.
The Chopin Competition is an extraordinary event that has been uniting music lovers from all over the world for years. For the first time, the pianists’ struggle could be followed on YouTube 6 years ago. Back then, the audition sessions alone were viewed nearly one million times, which, when added up, equates to 141 years of viewing. The largest audience was attracted by the concert of the Competition winner.
“I don’t remember how I played. I had to look it up on YouTube,” said at the time Seong-Jin Cho, the winner of the 17th edition of the competition. His performance was watched by over 2 million people. Viewers came from 218 countries, with almost 40% of them from South Korea (the home country of the Competition winner).
Now, once again, the music of the eminent Polish composer reaches Internet users all over the world in real-time. The preliminaries, which preceded the Piano Competition, attracted a record audience on YouTube. The audition sessions have been viewed more than 4.5 million times, and in total, viewers have watched nearly one million hours of broadcasts.
This year’s edition of the Chopin Competition will run until 23 October. Broadcasts are available on the Chopin Institute’s YouTube channel