About the Competition

The Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition came in­to being in 1973, at the initiative of Jan Jacob Bistritzky, a close friend of Arthur Rubinstein, who was honored to give his name to the Competition.

Conceived in the spirit of this legend­ary pianist, the Competition is com­mitted to attaining standards of the highest order and is a valid interna­tional forum for presenting talented, aspiring young pianists and fostering their artistic careers.

The Competition first took place in 1974 and is held every three years.

Rubinstein himself attend­ed the first two competitions, when the winners were Emanuel Ax and Gerhard Oppitz, renowned pi­anists today.

In 2003 pianist Idith Zvi succeeded Mr. Bistritzky as Artistic Director, a role she fulfilled until her retirement in 2020. Since July 2020, the Artistic Director of the Competition is pianist Ariel Cohen.

The past 40+ years of its history have continuously produced pianists who went on to international acclaim: Gerhard Oppitz, Angela Cheng, Alexander Korsantia, Kirill Gerstein, Alexander Gavrylyuk; Igor Levit, Khatia Buniatishvili, Boris Giltburg, Daniil Trifonov and others.