The Seventeenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition gets underway tomorrow (Wednesday, May 21) and Jed Distler will be your guide to all of this year's performances right here on the Gramophone website. 

The entire competition will be streamed live on the Cliburn Competition's YouTube channel, and Jed Distler will be giving his expert opinion and analysis in his daily blog for Gramophone. It's the perfect way to immerse yourself in this year's competition. Do follow us on Instagram, Facebook or X to keep up-to-date with the latest blog posts.

Of course, many of the medallists from the Cliburn Competition have gone on to significant recording careers, including Beatrice Rana (Silver Medal, 2013), Radu Lupu (Gold Medal, 1966), Cristina Ortiz (Gold Medal, 1969), Haochen Zhang (Gold Medal, 200), and – Gramophone's current Young Artist of the Year – Yunchan Lim (Gold Medal, 2022). We have produced a guide to 10 recommended recordings by Cliburn medallists to get you warmed up for this year's competition.

There are 28 competitors this year, with the competition taking place from May 21 to June 7. The running order (with local times from Texas) for the Preliminary rounds is as follows:

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Preliminary Recital 1
10:05 a.m. – Xuanxiang Wu, China, 18
10:50 a.m. – Shangru Du, China, 27
20-minute intermission
11:50 a.m. – Xiaofu Ju, China, 25

Preliminary Recital 2
2:35 p.m. – Ryota Yamazaki, Japan, 26
3:20 p.m. – Federico Gad Crema, Italy, 26
20-minute intermission
4:20 p.m. – Carter Johnson, Canada/United States, 28
5:05 p.m. – David Khrikuli, Georgia, 24

Preliminary Recital 3
7:35 p.m. – Aristo Sham, Hong Kong, China, 29
8:20 p.m. – Angel Stanislav Wang, United States, 22
20-minute intermission
9:20 p.m. – Philipp Lynov, Russia, 26

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Preliminary Recital 4
10:05 a.m. – Jonas Aumiller, Germany, 26
10:50 a.m. – Magdalene Ho, Malaysia, 21
20-minute intermission
11:50 a.m. – Roman Fediurko, Ukraine, 20

Preliminary Recital 5
2:35 p.m. – Mikhail Kambarov, Russia, 24
3:20 p.m. – Callum McLachlan, United Kingdom, 26
20-minute intermission
4:20 p.m. – Jiarui Cheng, China, 26
5:05 p.m. – Piotr Alexewicz, Poland, 25

Preliminary Recital 6
7:35 p.m. – Alice Burla, Canada, 28
8:20 p.m. – Yanjun Chen, China, 23
20-minute intermission
9:20 p.m. – Jonathan Mamora, United States, 30

Friday, May 23, 2025

Preliminary Recital 7
10:05 a.m. – Evren Ozel, United States, 26
10:50 a.m. – Sung Ho Yoo, South Korea, 28
20-minute intermission
11:50 a.m. – Chaeyoung Park, South Korea, 27

Preliminary Recital 8
2:35 p.m. – Pedro López Salas, Spain, 27
3:20 p.m. – Kotaro Shigemori, Japan, 25
20-minute intermission
4:20 p.m. – Elia Cecino, Italy, 23

Preliminary Recital 9
7:35 p.m. – Yangrui Cai, China, 24
8:20 p.m. – Vitaly Starikov, Israel/Russia, 30