The Annual San Francisco Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in 2027 online:

The deadline for non-edited video submissions is March 1, 2027, and winners will be announced on March 20, 2027. The winners' concert will be in person at San Francisco Steinway Gallery, date TBD.

The Annual San Francisco Chopin Competition for Young Pianists is open to pianists 17 years old or younger who reside or study in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento Area. 

Participants' age eligibility will be determined based on their age as of March 1, 2027 (application deadline). 

  • First Age Category: Age10 years and under: born on or after March 2, 2016.

  • Second Age Category: Age 11-13: born between March 2, 2013 and March 1, 2016. 

  • Third Age Category: Age 14-17: born between March 2, 2009 and March 1, 2013. 

Rules

  1. Every applicant’s teacher must be a Chopin Foundation of the United States San Francisco Council member.

  2. Contestants must submit a non-edited video recorded in the last three months.

  3. All compositions are original piano works by Fryderyk Chopin.

  4. Numbers in brackets refer to the Paderewski edition of all of Chopin’s works. A specific edition is not required.

  5. All pieces are to be played from memory. Contestants may choose the order in which the pieces are played. Please indicate it on the application form.

  6. Winners should be prepared to perform in the Winners Concert.

  7. Any winner who doesn’t perform in the Winners Concert (without a substantial and documented reason) will be automatically disqualified from receiving the prize.

  8. First-prize winners of the previous competitions are not eligible to participate in the same age category.

9. Jury’s decisions are final.                                                                                                                                                                       

Required Repertoire

First Age Category Through 10

One original composition by Chopin of the contestant’s choice.

Second Age Category  11 - 13

1) Prelude in e minor, Opus 28, No. 4
2) One original composition by Chopin of the contestant’s choice.

Third Age Category  14-17

1) One of the 21 Nocturnes
2) One of the 24 Etudes
3) One original composition by Chopin of the contestant’s choice.

*One movement from a sonata would be acceptable.
*No concertos are allowed


Prizes

First Age Category

First Prize     $60

Second Prize $50

Third Prize    $40

Second Age Category

First Prize     $200

Second Prize $150

Third Prize    $100

Third Age Category

First Prize     $350

Second Prize $250

Third Prize    $150

Laureates will also receive Diplomas, and all contestants will receive Certificates of Participation.

Application fee: $100

Application materials include:

  • A completed application form

  • Proof of age

  • A one-paragraph biography


Membership Here

Judges

Daniel Glover

Pianist Daniel Glover has performed in 42 states and 25 countries throughout Europe, Asia, North America, South America, and the Caribbean.

He holds a master’s degree from New York’s Juilliard School, where he attended as a scholarship student. Among his numerous competition awards is first prize in the prestigious LiederkranzCompetition in 1990. Mr. Glover has trained with such luminaries as Eugene List, Abbey Simon, Jerome Lowenthal, Nancy Bachus and Thomas LaRatta.

The San Francisco Classical Voice remarked, “Brilliant, tender, whimsical, sparkling…Glover brought everything together into a well-balanced, evenly measured medium.”  “The elegance and civility of Glover’s approach were musically unimpeachable.”   “Dazzling…golly can he play!  I kept expecting smoke to emerge from the interior of the instrument…a flawless sense of Lisztian style incorporating its emotional depth.”

Mr. Glover has recorded eight CDs on the DG2 label, including Franz Liszt, The Profound and the Profane (2008), Spanish Impressions (2006), Romantic Russian Encores (2005), and a recording of live performances of works for piano and orchestra by Mozart, Strauss, and Prokofiev (2005). Previous recordings include the complete solo piano music by Ravel (2003), the Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano with New York violinist Matthew Reichert (2001), Russian Romantics (2000), and an all-Chopin concert recorded live in 1999.

He currently resides in San Francisco.

Rachel Naomi Kudo

Rachel Naomi Kudo is the First Prize winner of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, celebrated for her “heartfelt, courageous, and flawless playing” (Lübecker Nachrichten). Praised as a “thrilling” artist of “exceptional artistic merit and meticulous precision,” she combines profound musical insight, poetic sensitivity, and commanding artistry on stage.

Since her debut with the Chicago and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras, Rachel has performed at major venues worldwide, including Bachfest Leipzig, the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Salle Cortot in Paris, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Denmark’s Tivoli Festival, Norway’s Bergen International Festival, and in the United States at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, David Geffen Hall, and Alice Tully Hall.

A Gilmore Young Artist and Davidson Fellow Laureate, Rachel has earned the Salon de Virtuosi Grant and scholarships from the National YoungArts Foundation and the Rohm Music Foundation. She was a top prizewinner in the U.S. National Chopin Competition and a finalist at the 15th International Chopin Competition in Warsaw.

Born in Washington, D.C. to Japanese-Korean parents, Rachel began piano studies at age four and continued her training at The Juilliard School, Mannes College, Stony Brook University, and the Peabody Institute, studying with distinguished teachers including Yoheved Kaplinsky, Joseph Kalichstein, Richard Goode, Gilbert Kalish, and Leon Fleisher.

A passionate advocate for music’s transformative power, Rachel has served as livestream host for the 18th and 19th International Chopin Competitions (2021, 2025) and has hosted the Cliburn Junior and U.S. National Piano Competitions. In 2021, she premiered Marc-André Hamelin’s Suite à l’ancienne, commissioned by the Gilmore Piano Festival, and in 2025 served on the jury of the 11th National Chopin Piano Competition of the United States.

Mack McCray

Mack McCray received his B.M. and M.S. from The Juilliard School, where he studied under Irwin Freundlich.

He won the Silver medal in the International George Enesco Competition, first prize in the Charleston Symphony and San Francisco Young Artists competitions, Juilliard’s Edward Steuermann Memorial Prize, and a grant from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation all in one season (19691970). He has been invited guest artist at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, Seville’s Great Interpreters Cycle, the UNESCO Festival of International Artists at Monte Carlo, the Bucharest Philharmonic’s Bach/Beethoven/Brahms Festival, and the Hong Kong City Hall Series. He has performed under such conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Edo de Waart, Josef Krips, Leon Fleisher, and Arthur Fiedler. In 1991, he performed the U.S. premiere of John Adams’s Eros Piano. Recently he has performed with the Japan Philharmonic in Suntory Hall, Tokyo, at the Shanghai International Beethoven Festival and on the Trinity Church Concert Series in Manhattan. Mack McCray is Artistic Director of Zephyr International Chamber Music Festival, held annually in Courmayeur, Italy, and from 1971 to 2015 he served on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.