Garrick Ohlsson to chair jury of the 2025 Chopin Competition in Warsaw

Coming full circle, acclaimed American pianist Garrick Ohlsson has been appointed as jury chair of the upcoming 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland. Ohlsson, now 77, won the competition in 1970, the first American to do so, and his appointment marks the first time that a non-Polish musician will head the competition’s jury.

Scheduled for Oct. 2-23, the prestigious event has Ohlsson leading a panel of eminent Chopin specialists, including past competition winners and scholars of the composer’s work.

An accomplished interpreter of Chopin’s music, Ohlsson posted this message on Facebook: “It will be my great honor to chair the competition jury for the Fryderyk Chopin Institute’s 19th competition in 2025. Winning this competition was life-changing, and my ongoing relationship with the institute is deeply meaningful.”

Footnote: Placing second that year was Japanese British pianist Mitsuko Uchida. 

Ohlsson, who will perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Aug.10 at Ravinia, also highlighted the competition’s significant influence in Poland and globally, noting that tickets for this year’s finals sold out within two minutes. Ohlsson last appeared with the CSO in 2018, under James Conlon, at Ravinia.

Held every five years, the Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition is one of the world’s leading events for young pianists, hailed for discovering new talent and championing Chopin’s works. The 2025 competition will be held at Warsaw’s National Philharmonic Hall, where audiences will witness three stages of competitive performances. Contestants will perform works exclusively by Chopin, a defining feature of the event since its founding nearly a century ago.

The qualification process for the 2025 competition began earlier this year. After initial rounds, approximately 160 pianists were invited to preliminary live auditions in Warsaw in April and May. After the preliminaries, the field was narrowed to 80 participants for the 2025 competition. Auditions and the finals were live-streamed worldwide and broadcast on Polish radio, with additional coverage by TVP Kultura, the first themed channel (in this case, arts and culture) to be run by the Polish public broadcaster TVP.

At Ravinia, Ohlsson will join the CSO and conductor Louis Langrée in an all-Mozart program, in which he will be the soloist in the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major, K. 482.