Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition brings first amateur edition to Lipscomb
Thirty-two amateur pianists will take the stage in Collins Alumni Auditorium Oct. 9-10 for two days of performances celebrating lifelong musicianship.
Robin Ghosh |
The Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition will return to Lipscomb University this fall with a new event celebrating accomplished pianists who have continued pursuing music alongside careers outside the concert stage.
The inaugural Nashville Chopin Amateur Competition will take place Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9-10, in Collins Alumni Auditorium. Thirty-two amateur pianists — people with careers outside music who have maintained a serious commitment to playing — will compete during the two-day event. The competition is free and open to the public, with no tickets or registration required.
For Jerome Reed, the Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Piano at Lipscomb, the competition offers a particularly meaningful example for students considering how music can remain part of their lives regardless of the careers they pursue.
“The Nashville Chopin Amateur Competition shows our students, alumni, and supporters the value of music as an avocation as well as a vocation,” said Reed. “It will prove inspiring and reassuring to students who are majoring in music but plan to go to medical or law school. You don't have to give up music in order to do something else.”
That idea is also personal for Joshua Izzard, director of the Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition.
“Before I went into business I was a concert pianist. The piano stayed. For anyone who loves it, it always does,” said Izzard. “This edition is for people who built their lives in other fields and kept the piano at the center of them.”
All 32 competitors will perform Friday in four sessions: 8:30-11:05 a.m., 11:25 a.m.-2 p.m., 2:45-5:15 p.m. and 5:35-8:05 p.m. Eight pianists will advance to Saturday’s final, which begins at 10 a.m., with awards expected to follow at approximately 3 p.m. Audience members are welcome to attend any session, with doors opening between pianists.
A six-member jury will evaluate the competitors. Graciella Kowalczyk will chair the jury, joined by Reed, Elisabeth Pridonoff, Robert Marler, Zsolt Bognár and Vladimir Petrov.
The amateur edition follows the Nashville International Chopin Piano Competition hosted at Lipscomb in December 2025. This year’s new format shifts the spotlight to musicians who have pursued other professional paths while continuing to make serious piano study and performance part of their lives.
The Nashville Chopin Amateur Competition will be held Oct. 9-10 in Collins Alumni Auditorium at Lipscomb University. Admission is free, and no registration or ticket is required.