For some years already, the International Piano Competition Ferrucio Busoni has had a Biennale structure: pre-selections and a piano festival take place in the first year, whereas the Finalissimo, when the Busoni Prize is awarded, takes place the following year. This year marks the first of a new Biennium and is all about the competition's growing international nature. Young piano talents from all over the world will be approached in five languages, including Chinese and Russian, and up to 150 of them will be invited to Bolzano to perform before the star-studded jury, headed by Gary Graffman. The piano festival that takes place at the same time as the pre-selections presents previous first prize winners from the Ferrucio Busoni competition, as well as others, including Garrick Ohlsson, Alexander Kobrin, Alexander Romanovsky, Anna Kravtchenko, Sofya Gulyak and Jinsang Lee. The piano evening with Grigory Sokolov, currently one of the most distinct and brilliant stars of the piano world, will be one of the highlights of the whole Bolzano Festival Bozen, whose partner is the Busoni piano festival. Igor Pogorelich, one of the most unconventional pianists in today's classical music scene, will also perform. However, a modern competition consists of more than an artistic contest and select piano evenings: With two public workshops, the Ferrucio Busoni International Piano Competition Foundation is highlighting its engagement as an imparter of knowledge and opening doors onto the fascinating world of the piano. Nicolas Hodges, an expert who is close friends with many significant composers alive today, will introduce his project on contemporary etudes; Alfred Brendel will involve three of last year's prize winners, Michail Lifits, Alexander Lebedev and Gesualdo Coggi, in his great art of playing the piano and his intellectually stimulating interpretations. There will be a small focus on Chopin in the programme as well as on rare pieces for piano and orchestra by Franz Liszt conducted by Arthur Fagen and performed by the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento. The performance of Leo Weiner's orchestral version of Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor is also well worth noting.