Select Music UK has struck a distribution deal with Honens, the label of Canada’s triennial Honens International Piano Competition, ensuring that recordings by competition Laureates are now more readily available in the UK. The competition already distributes its albums in the United States and Canada through Naxos.

‘The recordings are part of our wider work to help Honens Laureates develop as complete artists,’ said Stephen McHolm, Honens president and artistic director. ‘The Honens label presents a strong catalogue of our Laureates in recital. We are delighted to have a distribution deal with Select Music UK. It’s a real coup for us, especially so now that we are doing more with our Laureates in the UK and with our Honens Prize Laureate (2012), Pavel Kolesnikov, being based in London. The live recording of Pavel’s performances in last year’s competition, our latest release, is an excellent calling card for him and for the label.’

In the future Honens will release two to three new albums a year. Forthcoming recording sessions are scheduled for a retrospective of works composed in 1915 from Katherine Chi, the competition’s only female Prize Laureate (2000), and an all-Debussy programme from 2006 Prize Laureate Minsoo Sohn.

The next Honens Competition will take place in September 2015.