Mizuki Ono wins the 17th Orléans piano competition

Japanese pianist Mizuki Ono has won first prize at the 17th Orléans International Piano Competition, taking the Fondation ORCOM–Blanche Selva award following the final on October 31. Ono also received the Elliott Carter Prize.

Second prize, supported by the Caisse des Dépôts, went to Dutch-American pianist Carter Muller, who added the André Boucourechliev Prize and the audience award. Taiwanese pianist Shan Chi Hsu received third prize, the André Chevillion–Yvonne Bonnaud award.

The results extend beyond the principal ranking, with specialist distinctions drawing attention to individual composers and repertories. Canadian pianist Linda Ruan won both the Shanghai Conservatory of Music Composers Prize and the Ricardo Viñes Prize. Japan’s Haruka Ugaji received the Edison Denisov Prize, while Italy’s Mattia Fusi took the Isang Yun Prize.

Russian pianist Georgy Krizhnenko won the Paul Zukofsky Prize. The composition award was shared by Italy’s Maria Vittoria Agresti and Russia’s Arseniy Gusev, adding creative work to a list otherwise dominated by performance distinctions.

The laureates are scheduled to appear at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris on November 2 at 8pm. That concert takes the results beyond the competition’s host city and gives audiences a further opportunity to hear the musicians recognised by the jury.

Orléans is associated with modern and contemporary piano repertoire, and the distribution of named prizes reflects that orientation. Rather than allowing the overall ranking to tell the entire story, the awards identify several different strands of achievement within the field.

For Ono, first prize and the Carter distinction provide two forms of recognition. Muller’s combination of second prize, a composer-specific honour and the audience vote similarly shows how the competition’s different judgements can overlap. The final list offers listeners several routes into the work of this year’s selected pianists, alongside the headline result.