Pianist Pablo Galdo is the artistic director and president of the City of Vigo International Piano Competition in Spain, a Piano League partner. In this episode of Star Talk, recorded in October 2020, he explains why the competition has no age limit and no required repertoire, how it got through the pandemic, and how Martha Argerich came to sit on its jury.
In this conversation
- What is the city of Ferrol like?
- When did you decide to become a professional pianist?
- How the competition got started
- How big is the competition’s team?
- Why the competition has no age limit
- Why there is no repertoire requirement
- The oldest and youngest applicants
- Why competitions are dropping age limits
- The biggest challenges during the pandemic
- How musicians get through difficult times
- How he met Martha Argerich
- Why Martha Argerich agreed to judge the competition
- What it means to be a complete pianist today