The Liszt Academy with the help of the Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities launched the Bartók World Competition and Festival on the occasion of the 135th anniversary of the birth of Béla Bartók in 2017.
Besides featuring a repertoire demanding the very highest musical expertise, the Bartók World Competition and Festival achieves – even in its structure – something totally new for a competition. The competition is built around the most characteristic strands of the Bartók oeuvre, that is, piano, violin, chamber music and composition, which rotate in a six-year cycle. The individual instrumental competitions are organised every alternate year, with composer competitions in between, which always tie into the forthcoming instrumental category.
This distinctive structure is effective both at drawing the attention of the best instrumentalists of the upcoming musician generation to the works of Bartók and at the same time inspiring young composers to create new works written in the spirit of Bartók.
Applicants are required to compose a piece for the instrument or chamber music ensemble specified in the competition notice within the specified duration.
The sheet music or score of the works can be submitted in PDF format (A4 sheet music) by uploading them to the application interface.
The submitted works must meet the following criteria:
- be unpublished and unlisted,
- not have won a prize at a national or international composition competition,
- not have been recorded commercially, and
- not have been performed publicly prior to the November gala concert of the given competition year.
All scores must be submitted anonymously; only a pseudonym can be featured on the pages of the score. The name of the uploaded file must include the pseudonym, but there must be no reference to the competitor's name.
| Sections | Composition |
| Deadline | 19 Feb 2023 - 23 Aug 2024 |
| Finals | Nov 2024 |
| Where | Budapest, Hungary |
| Age groups | Composers of any nationality who have not reached the age of 40 by September 2024 |
2nd prize €3 000
3rd prize €2 000
Two pieces selected from among the prize-winning or honourable mention works will be included in the repertoire of the semi-final of the Bartók World Competition – Piano 2025 competition.
Augusta Read Thomas (USA)
Shinuh Lee (Korea)
Gyula Fekete (Hungary)
József Balog (Hungary)
2022:
1st prize Veljko Nenadić (SER), 2nd prize Thomas Kornél (USA/HUN), 3rd prize Jules Matton (FR)
2020:
1st prize Okamoto Sinshuke (JPN), 2nd prize Noh Seung Ju (KOR), 3rd prize Kim Jonghoon (KOR)
The organiser of the competition will cover the costs for travel and two nights of accommodation for the competitors admitted in the finals.
All of the competition rounds will take place online. The Gala Concert will take place in front of a live audience at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and will also be streamed online.
