Takamatsu International Piano Competition

The rules described hereunder are based on the Guidelines of the 3rd Takamatsu International Piano Competition (hereafter “the Guidelines”) and stipulate all items required for each round of the competition, judging procedures, and etc.

Item 1 Method of Judging

1. Initial Selection
   The purpose of the Initial Selection is to select 40 participants who will proceed to the First Round. 
   The Initial Selection will be undertaken by the Panel of Judges as stipulated in the Guidelines.
2. Preliminary Rounds (Round 1, Round 2, and Round 3)
   

   1)	The purpose of the Preliminary Rounds is to determine whether or not each participant will proceed to the next round. The Preliminary Rounds will be judged by a Jury as stipulated in the Guidelines. Prior to judging, a jury meeting will be held to confirm the methods of judging. The number of Contestants proceeding to subsequent Rounds will be 20 for the Round 1, 10 for the Round 2 and 5 for the Round 3
   2)	The Jury will score each Contestant by awarding them a maximum of 25 points, with points being in increments of 0.5. The lowest score shall be 14 points and the Contestant shall need to have 20 points or more to proceed to the subsequent Rounds.
   3)	To determine the rank of each Contestant, the lowest and highest scores will be eliminated and the scores of the remaining Jury members will be totaled to calculate the Contestant’s average score. In the event that the lowest or highest score is awarded by 2 or more Jury members, only 1 member’s score will be eliminated.
   4)	The Office will promptly calculate the average score of each Contestant in the presence of the Music Committee Chair or a member of the Working Committee appointed by the Music Committee Chair, and submit the average scores to the Jury.
   5)	The Jury will determine the rank of each Contestant in the order of the Contestants’ average scores from highest to lowest. If there are several Contestants at the pass line, the Jury will conduct the discussion.

3. The purpose of the Final Round is to determine the rank of the Contestants from 1st to 5th place.
   The judging for the Final Round will be undertaken by the Jury.
   The Jury members will determine the rank of the Contestants form 1st to 5th place. The Jury will conduct the discussion if there are several Contestants in the same rank.

Item 2 Piano Selection and Order of Performance

1. The order of performance will be decided by lot during the briefing session for the Contestants.
2. To determine the order of performances for the Round 1, the Music Committee Chair will draw letters of the alphabet to determine the order of last names of Contestants using the same piano. (The results for Item 2, however, will not be announced until Item 3 below has been determined.)
3. The Contestants will select and determine the piano they will use.
4. Contestants are permitted to change their choice of piano within one hour after the result announcement of the Round 1. No changes will be permitted in piano selection from the Round 2 to the Final Round.

* The order of performances for each type of piano will be determined by lot at the briefing session on the piano makers.

Item 3 Prohibition on Contact with Contestants

1. Jury members shall evaluate the performance of all Contestants in each Round. The evaluation shall be always fair. 
2. If a Jury member is absent during any part of a performance, the evaluation of that particular Jury member for that particular round in which the performance took place will be considered invalid. 
3. The Jury members are prohibited from having contact with the Contestants during the Competition period. However, this rule does not apply to any Contestants who have been eliminated from the Competition at an earlier stage.  

Item 4 Announcement of Results

The evaluation of each Jury member for the Final Round will be made public. 

October 14, 2013

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