Press conference of 4 juries
On the 22nd, after the first day of the final stage, the juries, Oxana YABLAONSKAYA (Russia), ZHOU Guangren (China), Alexander JENNER (Austria) and Einar STEEN-NOKLEBERG appeared for the press conference. It was held in the lobby of the main hall. There were 200 audiences who came to find out what the juries had to say.
Each jury gave a comment of the day. JENNER said, "I cannot tell you the result of today. You will have to wait until the end of the performance." STEEN-NOKLEBERG said, "Three contestants were all great, but some of them speeded up too much, so it gave me the impression that the expression was not enough."

YABLAONSKAYA continued, "The level of this competition is very high, so we enjoyed the beautiful Chopin and two Tchaikovsky. We are going to listen to another Tchaikovsky tomorrow."

ZHOU said, "The level of the competition has reached to the global level, especially the young ones have improved a lot. We had an 18-year-old player today. Being able to perform like that is very impressive for his age. I am also impressed how quickly their fingers move."

One of the questions given to the juries was to find out why the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition has become well known in the world. ZHOU said, "The reason of starting a piano competition was to celebrate 80th anniversary of Hamamatsu city. The beginning is very unique to start with. The city itself is working very hard to make this competition. The collaboration with NAKAMURA is also impressive and everybody teams well together." STEEN-NOKLEBERG said, "As they audition in Vienna and Paris, it is very effective for the competition to become aware among the young pianists in Europe."

YABLAONSKAYA made a point by mentioning the piano manufactures in the city. She said, "The contestants are provided very nice condition to practice before the performance. They talk about this good condition to other pianists, and those who heard about it come to participate. It is indeed a positive spiral."

The final stage has started finally. The venue has moved to the bigger main hall from the concert hall. To reflect how much attention the citizens are paying to the event, the long line of 300 people was made to get the limited tickets. Even though the tickets were sold from 4:45 PM, the first person liked up at around 1 o'clock.
This final stage is held over the long weekend, there are many people from outside of the prefecture. The tickets were sold out one hour before the stage started. The hall was filled with 1,700 audiences.

The first performer was 18-year-old BLECHACZ from Poland. His performance of Polish composer Chopin in the third stage had a great reputation. Some female fans said he looked like the Little Prince. His choice of the day was Concerto No.1 in e minor op. 11 of the composer. The audiences found the performance very pure and gave a lot of applause.
SUZUKI performed the next. He had to drop out of the competition the last time as he injured his arm. He came back again to challenge again. The age 25 is the oldest among all contestants. He performed Tchaikovsky showing contrast of high and low notes.
SEKIMOTO, who is 18 years old performed with his energy and youth. The audiences enjoyed his performance as well.

BLECHACZ
"I am very happy that I could play with the great orchestra in the wonderful hall. I played Concerto No.1 in e minor op.11 by Chopin with a Polish orchestra in May this year. I have also played a concerto of Liszt, but the Chopin pieces are somewhat similar to me, so whenever I play them, I feel as if I am in a dream. I plan before my performance, but it does not mean that my performance goes as I planned. I am satisfied with my performance today because I could express as much as possible."

SUZUKI
"I could not sleep well enough as usual, but I did not get too nervous as I knew that I would win a prize between 1st and 6th no matter how I perform. I heard SEKIMOTO's performance in summer. I could not play as perfect as he did, but I have no regret choosing the piece. My plan was to express expansiveness of Russia, not to emphasize my technique. I am grateful for OTOMO and the orchestra for supporting me. In the last two weeks, I had my emotional ups and downs like I have never had in my 25-year life. I am just happy that it is done at the moment."

SEKIMOTO
"I am satisfied with my performance. I have played this piece with accompaniment on the other piano, but it was a first time for me to play with an orchestra. I could not keep my concentration in the third stage, but I enjoyed my performance very much without being nervous at all. When I heard the audiences' applause, I became very happy and content. I don't want to play the piano at least next one week though (said jokingly). I participated this event not to win a prize, but to challenge a program that cannot be done in one day. I think this event will be my turning point."