This competition was founded in 1991. It is held once every three years, and is the only Japanese piano competition that is affiliated with The World Federation of International Music Competition. Among the past winners are Alessio BAX who subsequently won the first prize in the Harveys Leeds International Pianoforte Competition and Ayako Uehara, the second prizewinner from the previous competition, who won the first prize in International "Tchaikovsky" Competition's piano section last year. She is the first female pianist as well as the first Japanese pianist who won the Tchaikovsky and has gradually gained international reputation.

This year's competition has a high quality entry of 83 contestants such as Alexander Kobrin from Russia (the third prizewinner from International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition 2000 and the first prizewinner from "Ferruccio Busoni" International Piano Competition 1999), Andrey Ponochevny from Belarus(the third prizewinner from International "Tchaikovsky" Competition 2002) and Dymytry Onyshchenko from Ukraine (the fifth prizewinner from Tchaikovsky). There are 30 contestants who have won prizes in competitions that belong to The World Federation of International Music Competition.
On the other hand, we have young promising Japanese contestants such as Hironao Suzuki, the sixth prizewinner from "Ferruccio Busoni" International Piano Competition 2002 and the special award winner from International "Tchaikovsky" Competition, Ayako Okamoto, the sixth prizewinner from International piano competition "Marguerite Long-Thibault"-Ville de Paris.

Hiroko Nakamura, a Japanese leading pianist, is the chairperson of the jury since the third competition. The jury, under her chairmanship, consists of eminent musicians who serve as jurors for world-class competitions. Among the 13 strong jury are Arie Valdi, the chairman for Arthur Rubinstein Inernational Piano Master Competition of Israel, Fanny Waterman, the president of the Harveys Leeds International Pianoforte Competition of England, Sergey Dorensky, Jacques Rouvier, Bin Ebisawa and Toshi Ichiyanagi from Japan.
Prior to the curtain-up, the opening concert by Alexandr Gavrylyuk, the previous winner, is held today.

A high-level competition which gathers more stream each time/ Yasuyuki Kitawaki, Mayor of Hamamatsu City

The Hamamatsu International Piano Competition was founded in 1991 as a program to transmit music culture toward the rest of the world and it has been held every 3 yeas since then. Hamamatsu City propels the "city development of music". The fifth competition is held in November 2003 at ACT City Hamamatsu with 83 young pianists from 29 countries and 1 region. They have been selected from 319 applications which came from 47 countries and 1 region.

These 83 contestants of exceptional talent have been screened through the documentary examination or the auditions held in New York, Paris, Vienna, Moscow and Hamamatsu. Their performances were highly evaluated and made a positive impression on many audiences.

Many of its past contestants being prizewinners in international competitions approved by The World Federation of International Music Competition, this competition has reached a high-level and gathers more stream each time. I would like to express my gratitude to all the people including the contestants, Ms Nakamura and other jurors, the committee members, and the local supporters.

The objectives of the competition are to cultivate young pianists, to promote music culture in the world and to encourage international exchange. We will continue to make this competition established in the city. We hope that we will receive your further support. Thank you.

The cream of young pianists across the world has come./ Hiroko Nakamura, the chairperson of the jury

This is the 5th anniversary of the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, and we have unprecedented lineup of the contestants. Nine first prizewinners from the competitions affiliated with the World Federation of International Music Competitions and prizewinners from the competitions such as Chopin or Tchaikovsky are among the contestants for this year's event. In the midst of these talents, many gifted young performers have also applied. The fact that there is no age restriction made this possible. Since 14 to 15 year-old pianists could give refined performances of world-class level, this year's competition will be a treat to look forward to. While the recent competitions in Europe have a high proportion of Asian contestants, we have many participants from the western countries. It means that this competition has been recognized as a world-class competition. This is something noteworthy.