Winners of the International Piano Competition “Minsk-2021” announced

The awards ceremony at the International Piano Competition “Minsk-2021” took place on 10 December 2021 at the Big Concert Hall of the Belarusian State Philharmonic.
This year pianists from Belarus, Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, China, Uzbekistan and Ukraine took part in the competition.

1st place – Arsenii Merzlov (Russia)
2nd place – Nikita Stetsenko (Uzbekistan)
3rd place – Valentin Malinin (Russia)
3rd place – Vladislav Handogy (Belarus)
Prize winner – Elena Naumenko (Belarus)
Prize winner – Zarina Akayeva (Kazakhstan)


Elena Naumenko was given a special award “For high creative achievement and efforts to maintain international prestige of the Belarusian State Academy of Music”. She showed the best result among the students of the Academy who participated in the competition.
Zhanna Zdornova (Kazakhstan) was also awarded a special prize by the Belarusian Union of Musical Figures “For the best performance of the Belarusian composer’s piece of music”.
-The main goal of our competition is to provide a chance for young talented musicians to start a complicated but at the same time exciting and breathtaking creative life, said Sergei Sarakach, the Deputy Minister of culture at the awards ceremony. – Despite the tense epidemiological situation in the world, we managed to gather a lot of participants and a large audience. Many of you were impressed by the Republic of Belarus and its culture and we were amazed by the participants of the competition.
The concert with the laureates of the competition accompanied by the Belarusian State Academic Symphony Orchestra (Chief conductor – the People’s Artist of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Anisimov, conductor – Yuri Karavaev) was performed after the awards ceremony.
The International Piano Competition was held in Minsk for the sixth time. The best piano soloists aged from 16 to 30 competing with each other were evaluated by the jury, which consisted of outstanding musicians from Belarus and abroad.