Only applicants with a receipt of the complete application form will receive a confirmation from the competition office.

The order of performance in the Semi-Final will be decided by the jury one week before its commencement and will be sent by email to each pianist. The basis of this decision is to create a diverse program for the public as well as pianists.
Participants admitted to the semi-final and final rounds are required to remain in contact with the Competition Committee.
Participants consent to any radio, video and television recordings, for which they waive all rights to financial remuneration. Any recordings made during the competition, remain the property of the International Piano Competition J. S. Bach in Memoriam Walter Blankenheim and can be used by the Competition in any way.

Prizewinners will be announced at the award ceremony.

Our prizes will be awarded only to semi-finalists and finalists who are present at the ceremony. Please take note that special prizes can be generated from any round of the competition. If any competitors from the Preliminary round receive prizes, we will send these awards by E-Mail.

The decisions of the jury are final.
Participants are being evaluated on a high standard of performance. Thus, the jury is not obliged to award all the prizes. These regulations will be issued in German and English. However, in case of doubt, only the German text shall be considered legally binding.

On submission of their entry form, participants imply their agreement to these regulations.

Rules and Regulations on the Voting procedure of the competition

Jury members must refrain from voting for the duration of the competition for any contestant that has at any point studied with them.
During the first-round jury members must refrain from voting (in Preliminary) for any contestant they have taught in a Masterclass in the two years preceding the competition.

Due to the independent international teaching activities of the Jury members, and in spite of the competition’s attempts to diversify the jury by inviting guest jurors to the core jury, it is theoretically possible that a contestant may have participated in courses given by several jury members.

To ensure that the outcome of the final rounds is not effectively decided on by only one or two jurors, all jurors are allowed to vote in the last two rounds (Semi-final and Final) even for participants they have taught in masterclasses.

(This applies only to participants that have participated in masterclasses. For current or former students see paragraph 1).

All rounds of the competition are judged on the same scale, with the final result being a total sum of results of all preceding rounds.
The decision of the jury is final. In the evaluation of performances, the jury is required to maintain the highest standard, and is not required to award all prizes. The voting process works in this way: In the intervals, between performances, jury members award only points to the participants anonymously. These points are then tabulated by the jury directors. After the points are added, there is a discussion about the participants that have fallen just short of the required score to pass into the next round. This discussion aims to ensure that the maximum possible number of participants proceed to the next round and to prepare a reserve list in case of any cancellation of participants for the next round (e.g. due to injury or personal problems). After the end of every round, there is a discussion (and vote if required) on all borderline cases.

Renewed votes DO NOT include any juror that has taught or is currently a teacher of a candidate. The results will be sent to the candidates by Email.

After the preliminary round the jury provides an opportunity to the participants who did not proceed to the next round, to have a 15-minute conversation with one of the jurors via skype or zoom.  If you would like to take up this offer, please contact us within 8 days of the announcement of results of the preliminary round, and we will arrange a date and time: when this can take place.

It is of particular importance to us to ensure that this competition is carried out fairly and transparently!