TheHonens Way

“My vision is to identify the finest of today’s young pianists, to bring them to Calgary in a competition that is held in the highest international esteem, and to create a legacy of musical excellence that can be enjoyed by Canadians for countless generations.”

Esther Honens

The Beginning

“A legacy of excellence to be shared for generations”—that was the dream of 89-year-old Esther Honens when she endowed $5 million to launch the Esther Honens International Piano Competition Foundation in 1991.

It all started in Honens’ living room, where she was joined by her lawyer, Don Hatch, and her accountant, Michael Kociuba.

“She had been to the Van Cliburn Competition in Fort Worth, Texas,” Hatch says, “and enjoyed it so much, she thought Calgary should have one, too.”

“Then she asked us, ‘What do you think?’”

“To be honest, neither of us was particularly entrenched in the local music community, let alone the world of international music competitions, so we weren’t the right people to ask,” Hatch says, “but we agreed to mak e some inquiries.”

To seek further advice and direction, one of the first people Hatch approached was Calgary lawyer and classical music devotee, Russ McKinnon, who had helped establish the Calgary Organ Festival in 1990. Thankfully, Russ enthusiastically agreed to help, but there was still a ways to go.

One day, Esther’s doctor, Paul Crossfield, called to ask Hatch if he might be interested in coming to his home to enjoy an intimate piano recital. He accepted. There, he met Gloria Saarinen, a well-respected Calgary pianist and teacher, who performed the music of Mozart for the assembled group. The group mused about what a Calgary-style international piano competition might look and, more importantly, feel like…and from that point, the ball was rolling.

Noted Calgary businessman and philanthropist, Bill Kilbourne was asked to lead the charge. He accepted, and in turn, approached long-time Calgary arts champion, Jenny Belzberg, to join him on the Board to help turn Esther’s dream into reality. Bill later became Honens’ founding Board Chair and Jenny, a founding Board Member. The next steps were to create a plan and build a business.

“We needed to formalize the organization,” Hatch says. “Esther was donating $5 million, which is a lot of money even by today’s standards but was even more back then. Ultimately, we decided to entrust the funds to the Calgary Foundation, in the form of an endowment, where it has remained and grown for the past thirty years.”

Long-time Calgary Herald music critic, Kenneth Delong, remembers hearing about a new international piano competition that was planned to be hosted in Calgary in 1993. “The first thing I thought was the implausibility of the whole idea,” he says. “Who was Esther Honens, of all people, to be taking on a project so ambitious? The whole thing sounded a little crazy!”

Crazy or not, planning was well underway, and the Honens International Piano Competition was launched. But before the organizers had a chance to put their plan into action, they realized that their timeline needed to be shortened.

One Year To Launch

Sadly, as planning entered its initial stages, Esther Honens learned she was dying. Although only recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, she was in rapid decline.

“Her health started to fail,” says Don Hatch. “We decided to move the event up by a full year in an attempt to have the first Honens before Esther died.”

1992 Honens Laureates L to R: Sergei Babayan, Yi Wu (Prize Laureate), Krzysztof Jablonski, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Dmitry Nesterov. Nesterov and Jablonski enjoyed their experiences so much that following the Competition, each decided to move to Calgary from their respective countries, Russia and Poland.

French pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet learned about this new international piano competition and two things caught his attention. “It was the first competition to have a completely free repertoire,” he says, ”and none of the jurors were professional jury members—they were all professional concert pianists.”

“That was all a part of the type of piano competition that Gloria Saarinen, Honens’ first Artistic Director, envisioned,” says Hatch. “She wanted the jury group to be musicians, not professional jury members. One objective she had was for Honens to have a ‘music festival-like’ approach. She wanted it to be more pleasant for audience members and performers alike—and it’s proven to be a successful formula for all subsequent competitions.”

At the same time, Russian pianist Dmitry Nesterov was scheduled to compete in an international piano competition in Spain when he received a call indicating that the event had been canceled.

“I was very, very upset,” said Nesterov. “But after much research we learned that there was a new competition taking place in Canada and I was asked if I would like to go. Of course, I said, ‘Yes!’”

The first Honens International Piano Competition took place 13 to 28 November 1992 and drew 40 pianists from many countries to Calgary, where they competed for a $20,000 grand prize.

Esther Honens watched the inaugural Competition from a private booth at the back of the Jack Singer Concert Hall.

“She was quite delighted and very grateful,” says Hatch. “It filled her with satisfaction and pride.”

Five days later, Esther Honens died. The Competition’s first Prize Laureate, Yi Wu, was flown in from Argentina to Calgary to play at her funeral…barely a week after the first-ever Honens International Piano Competition had heard its final cadence.

1996 Honens Laureates

L to R: Maxim Philippov (Prize Laureate), Albert Tiu, Eugene Watanabe. 1996 was host to the second Honens Piano Competition as the first three Competitions were held four years apart.

“Honens has become one of the two cultural events that has put Calgary on the map (the other one is the annual rodeo).”—BBC Music Magazine

2000 Honens Laureates

L to R: Katherine Chi (Prize Laureate), Alessandra Ammara, Marko Martin. To date, Katherine Chi remains the only female and Canadian to be named Honens Prize Laureate.