Amateur pianists aged six to 18 will take part in the annual VNAM Piano Festival 2016 to be held in Hanoi between July 15 and 17  at the Vietnam Academy of Music.

“The festival aims to be a playground for piano lovers to exchange and practice their performance skills on the professional stage and to encourage them to join larger scale domestic and international contests,” said pianist Nguyen Minh Anh, head of the contest’s jury board.

Pianists who are not students at music schools are expected to register for the contest by July 7.

Contestants in A category (age group 6-8) will play a piece of less than five minutes, while B (age group 9-11) and C (age group 12-14) category contestants will play a piece of less than eight minutes. Category D contestants (age group 15-18) will be asked to play a piece that is under 10 minutes long.

All the pieces will be classical music and contestants are expected to play from memory.

The jury comprises four piano lecturers from the Academy of Music.

The winner in each category will be offered a piano course at the academy.

For more information, please visit the Vietnam National Academy of Music’s website at http://www.vnam.edu.vn.

VNS