Below, an overview of the travelling that Gustav made in 2005.
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Gustav is nearly always travelling. (To avoid the perhaps obvious thought that some people might have: his trips are not sponsored by the Alink-Argerich Foundation.)
2005 was a year full of high-level piano events! Within one year, the Arthur Rubinstein Competition (Tel-Aviv) and the Van Cliburn Competition took place, as well as first Richter competition in Moscow and the Cleveland and Santander Competitions, and in October the famous Chopin Competition in Warsaw!
During 2004, quite a number of international competitions joined AAF, so that by the end of 2004 there were 29 AAF member competitions. Twenty of them took place in 2005.
December: the beginning of the month, Gustav was still in New York, but right after to Holland, he went to Paris, where he attended the Competition for the Prix Animato (AAF). In both places, he met with many pianists, and spoke with 93-year old Gyorgy Sandor over the phone. (This proved to be the last contact they had before Gyorgy Sandor passed away, 10 days later.) Mid December, Gustav was in Dortmund and Bonn (Germany). Gustav attended the semi-finals and final stage of the Beethoven Competition Bonn (AAF). The rest of the month, Gustav was working intensely on the new AAF catalogue 2006 which offers information about the approx. 45 AAF member piano competitions (as many competitions joined AAF also during 2005).
November: The beginning of November, Gustav was in Seoul (South Korea), giving lectures. At the end of the month, he was in New York giving a seminar series on piano competitions which included a lecture and two panel discussions which he chaired, and in which Jerome Rose, Paul Pollei, Solomon Mikowsky, Oxana Yablonskaya and Alexis Gregory participated.
October: between October 11-18, Gustav was in Warsaw for the Chopin Competition (AAF) . At the end of the month, Martha Argerich was in the Netherlands for a special concert (with Ida Haendel and Steven Isserlis). Gustav went there, listened and spent many hours talking with them. The next day, Gustav was on his way to South Korea, where he is giving two lectures (about piano competitions) in Seoul.
The beginning of September, Gustav was still at the first International Piano Competition in Hong Kong (AAF), but once back in Europe he caught up with the competitions taking place there: he paid a brief visit to the Tomassoni Competition in Cologne (Germany), and then he was one week in Prague, where he was on the jury for the Carl Czerny Competition for Young Pianists. Right after that, he was at the Schubert Competition in Dortmund (AAF). Due to booking problems of his flight to Warsaw, he was unable to witness the conclusion of the preliminary stage of the 15th Chopin Competition (AAF), but he will be in Warsaw from October 11th.
In August, Gustav is in Japan where he attended the finals and award ceremony of the 26th PTNA Competition (AAF). He also attended a concert of Hiroko Nakamura, and met with many pianists and other well-known people in the Piano World. From Japan, Gustav will travel on to Hong Kong, to attend the first days of the new Hong Kong Int'l Piano Competition (AAF), the beginning of September.
For July, Gustav did not plan much travelling, since it had been 'more than enough' during the first half year. In July, Gustav spends much time assisting the AAF members, and in further improving and updating AAF's web site very frequently (several times a week). He is also investigate some matters that were posed to him, trying to solve some unresolved situations between prizewinners and competition organisers ... In between, he had the opportunity to see Martha Argerich again. Both were very happy to talk about other things than piano all the time ...
In June, Gustav travelled to the USA, to attend the final stage of the Van Cliburn Competition in Fort Worth (Texas), and then he was a few days at the Beethoven Competition in Vienna, followed by five days in Spain.
In May, Gustav did a lot of travelling. First he went to Brussels, to hear some violin performances in the Queen Elisabeth Competition (AAF). He travelled to Kitzingen for a brief visit at the Seiler Competition, and then went to the Lake Como Competition (AAF) in Italy. He also attended the Annual Assembly of the World Federation of International Music Competitions, this year in Bordeaux (France). Unfortunately, these events took place at the same time as the new Liszt Competition in Pecs (Hungary) (AAF). From Bordeaux, Gustav travelled back to Italy, to see the conclusion of the first stage of the competition in Cantu. Finally home again, he needed much time to process all gathered news and information, and to give everything a proper follow up, while he also had to catch up with all the other events.
In April, Gustav attended some performances during various stages of the Liszt Competition in Utrecht (AAF). He also travelled to Israel, to attend the Chamber Music round of the Arthur Rubinstein Competition and where he also gave a talk (about piano competitions), for contestants and jury members. Gustav also attended the finals of the International Piano Competition in London. Gustav did not manage to be back in Paris, though he would have liked to see part of the Jean Francaix Competition. Neither did he have enough time to visit Barcelona or Kiev.
In March, Gustav attended the Emmanuel Durlet Competition in Antwerp (Belgium). One week later, he was back in Belgium for a concert of Nelson Freire, where he also saw Martha again, and spend many hours talking with them afterwards. He continued to France, where he visited the competition in Epinal. Home again, he sent much information to people who needed it. During one week, he was adding News to this web site almost every day, and he continued with the distribution of the new AAF brochure. (Already more than 1,000 were delivered throughout the world during the first few weeks after it came out.)
In February, Gustav was in Pontoise (near Paris), attending the Piano-Campus Festival and Competition (AAF), and where he also gave a lecture (February 12). Afterwards, he was a few days in Germany, from where he sent many packages containing the new AAF brochure. The remaining days in February, he reserved extra time to assist AAF members, and he was able to see Martha Argerich again in Brussels, after President Bush had left the city and the streets in Brussels were back to normal again.
In January 2005, Gustav finished the first AAF brochure which is in full-colour. During two days between January 16-20, Gustav visited Utrecht to attend part of the auditions for the Van Cliburn Competition. Between January 20 and February 6, he was in Japan. He gave a seminar on piano competitions in Tokyo on January 29-30. During those days, Martha Argerich was also in Tokyo.
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You may leave a message for Gustav Alink at his home tel.: (+31) 70 - 3634760 which he will check frequently, or send a fax to: (+31) 70 - 3652513.
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