In 2009, AAF offered financial support to the following competitions

click on the competition to see some photos

To arrive at this selection, the following procedure was followed

At the end of 2008, there were 93 AAF member competitions. 49 of these were scheduled to take place in 2009. A few competitions could not or preferred not to be considered for the AAF support (e.g. for organisational reasons). Thus, 43 AAF member competitions were included in the first draw.

From these 43, the following five were randomly chosen by Mr. Rang:
- the "USasu-Bösendorfer" Competition in Tempe (Arizona) [January 2009]
- the "Top of the World" International Piano Competition in Tromsø (Norway) [June 2009]
- the "Vendome" Prize Competition, Lisbon (Portugal) [July 2009] *
- the "PTNA" Competition in Tokyo (Japan) [August 2009]
- the "George Enescu" Competition in Bucharest (Roumania) [August/September 2009]

Mr. Rang selected one more competition from another group of international piano competitions, which were not AAF members. To be considered, a few additional conditions had to be fulfilled. In total, 11 non-member international piano competitions taking place in 2009 were included in the draw.

From these 11, the following competition was randomly selected by Mr. Rang:
- the Internationa Music Competition ""Duchi d'Acquaviva" in Atri (Italy) *

Mr. Rang also selected six more competitions, in case some of the above were unable to organise the AAF reception. These "runners-up" were, in order of their selection:

from among the remaining non-member competitions:
- the International Piano Competition in Merignac (near Bordeaux, France) [March 2009]

and from among the remaining AAF member competitions:
1. "Arcangelo Speranza" International Piano Competition in Taranto (Italy) [May 2009]
2. Dublin International Piano Competition, Dublin (Ireland) [May 2009]
3. International Piano Competition "Premio Jaen", Jaen (Spain) [April 2009]
4. "Russian Music" International Piano Competition, San José (USA) [June 2009]
5. "BSI" International Piano Competition, Crans-Montana (Switzerland) [August 2009]

And indeed, two of the initially selected competitions could not organise the AAF reception:
- Atri, because the piano competition was postponed, and
- Lisbon, because the organiser of the Vendome Prize anticipated organisational problems to have the reception properly arranged.

Therefore, according to the rules, AAF's offer of support went to the next two competitions on the list: Merignac and Taranto, and these organised indeed the AAF reception.