The 2nd stage started from Nov-15th. In 50 minutes, contestants must play (1) Chopin one work from Etude op.10 or op.25, (2) Any two etudes by Liszt, Debussy, Skriabin, Rakhmaninov, Bartok or Stravinsky, (3) Any one or several by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schmann, Liszt, Brahms, Franck, Faure, Debussy or Ravel, (4) Ichiyanagi Toshi's "Piano Poem for piano".

The 2nd stage also started on 10 a.m. at the middle hall of Act city Hamamatsu. The first performer Andrea Lam from Australia talked and smiled, 'Last night, I was too nerves to sleep.' In 9 contestants of this first day, Japanese are Hibiki Tamura, 16 years old student of Aichi Prefectural Meiwa high school, who is noticed as an attendant of Hamamatsu International Piano Academy in this year and 2001, and Hironao Suzuki, the special prizewinner of International Tchaikovsky Music Competition 2002.

On the first holiday in the tern of this competition, many people total over 1,200 persons had came from the morning, and the long line for the ticket sold on the day of performance shows how high the peoples are interested in. The 2nd stage will be by Nov-17th. On 16th, Asako Okamoto, the 6th prizewinner of Long-Thbaud International Piano Competition, and on 17th, Syohei Sekimoto will play. Also, Alexander Kobrin, the Grand Prix winner of F. Busoni International Piano Competition will perform. The competition is getting more exciting.

The 2nd stage started
The new work for this competition by Toshi Ichiyanagi is one of the repertoire has played by all contestants.
The 2nd stage started from Nov-15th, 10 a.m. The first performer was Andrea Lam from Australia. She played Chopin's etude in e minor and Sonata no.2, Rakhmaninov's Etude-tableau in d major and others. Even she seems nerves at the beginning, though got relaxed and played free and easy, and showed us charming smile when applauded.

Next, David Fay from France and Avan Yu performed. They played their program ardently chosen by their own out of regular repertoire. In those works, all the contestants must play "Piano Poem for piano" composed by Thoshi Ichiyanagi.

Thoshi Ichiyanagi is the Jury of this competition, too. About his work, 'I want them play the piano like reading a poem with modulation. I composed this piece focusing not only on the technique and ability to read the sheets but also on the expression for this high level international competition. I wish several characteristic motives and scenes of various pianism will be expressed uniquely with the approaches by each performers view of points.' And told about the performance by the contestants, 'Only 3 persons' I listened, but, almost 2 minutes different to end the piece between the Asian from Australia and the French in 2nd, for example. This may be the deference of races. In that mean, it is interesting how they will play my work.'

In the afternoon, after Rafal Blechacz from Poland, the 2 Japanese, Hibiki Tamura and Hironao Suzuki played. The hall became almost full before Tamura's turn as many peoples came to listen to those Japanese pianists. Tamura played Liszt's Paganini Etude no.2 and Etude d'execution transcendante no.5 "Feux follets", Chopin's Etude in c minor, total 6 pieces. Suzuki played Rakhmaninov's Etude-tableau in a minor, Schumann's Symphonic Etudes, and other 3 pieces. Audience applauded their dignified performance.
A woman who listened to their play says, 'It was so excited to listen to the talented play by the pianists to be world-wide.'

After them, 3 Russian contestants, Denis Kuznetsov, Alexadre Pirojenko, Anton Salnikov performed. The Russian 6 contestants who passed to 2nd stage are the biggest number by a country same to Japanese 6 contestants at the 2nd stage. Their result must be our one of interesting thing.

On the first holiday in the tern of this competition, peoples were in a long line for the ticket sold on the day of performance. Total over 1,200 persons that had came was the biggest since this competition started.