The Sydney Piano Marathon (known as The Sydney), a feature cultural event held every four years in Sydney, could not be held this year because of Covid19.

The producers of the concert recitals have come up with a webcast to fill the gap created by the virus. The webcast features all the atmosphere of the last Sydney Piano Marathon which took place in late July, 2016..

The Sydney 2016 saw 32 pianists selected from around the world compete in three stages. The preliminary stage consisted of two solo recitals, with 12 competitors selected to move into the semi-final stage where they performed a 65 minute solo recital and a chamber music recital. The six chosen to compete in the final stage performed two full length concertos with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

 In addition to the full 2016 event, the free webcast (running across what would have been the Finals weekend of The Sydney 2020) will include specially created new content from some of the competition’s 2016 laureates and competitors who had been chosen to compete in 2020 before the concert series had to be cancelled.

The webcast, over 60 hours in duration, will run from 7:30pm on Thursday 23 July until approximately. 2:00pm AEST on Sunday 26 July, and can be accessed via http://www.thesydney.com.au/pianomarathon.

Featured image – The Sydney Piano Marathon Class of 2016. Pic Daniel Boud