The First Little Golden Bell Award -- National Piano Competition (Yangtze River Piano ) will start in Yichang on September 16. But why is this new award set up and why is Yichang, with no music school at all, chosen as the first competition place?

　　Little Golden Bell Award: A New Face

　　China Golden Bell Award, a national professional music award, has a very comprehensive and complete testing standard. What’s more, as the competition programs are difficult and in great numbers, it is very hard to get the prize. “The period for individual competition is very long. Some music instrument competition is held once every ten years and some have no chance at all”, said Han Xin’an, Secretary of Chinese Musicians Association. China Little Golden Bell Award, as the supplement and improvement of China Golden Bell Award, is set up in consideration of the current situation of China Golden Bell Award. Now, it is held every year, with junior group and college group competition in odd years and professional group in even years. What’s more important is that it lowers the age limit, which means that competitors under 16 years old, including teachers and students from non-musical primary and middle schools, schools of music, higher education institutions and music colleges of normal university, have access to the competition. As a result, it will have a much wider range of competitors.

　　250 Contestants Entered the 2nd Round

　　In April, 2013, hosted by Chinese Musicians Association, Yichang Municipal Government and organized by Office for Big Events of Chinese Musicians Association, College Music Union of Chinese Musicians Association and Parson Music Group, China Little Golden Bell Award - the First National Piano Competition (Yangtze River Piano ) began.

　　The competitors are divided into junior group and college group. The junior group includes the piano major performers, under and including 16 years old, from nine music schools, art colleges and independent piano schools. The college group consists of the piano major students and teachers from comprehensive universities, normal universities and art colleges and non-piano major students from nine famous music shcools. The former group will compete for piano solo and the latter will compete for piano solo (dividing into teachers group and students group) and piano duet.

　　On March 29, Chinese Musicians Association released the notification of the piano competition. Preliminaries started on June 22 in 15 sub-contest areas including Liaoning Province, Zhejiang Province and Guangdong Province，etc. After fierce competition, 250 contestants stood out from over 3000 competitors and gained access to the quarter-finals.

　　The results will come out in six days in Yichang.

　　On September 16, China Little Golden Bell Award -- the First National Piano Competition ( Yangtze River Piano ) will start.

　　“Although there is no professional music school in Yichang, we have drawn up the plan to develop Yichang into a city with rich culture, which is in line with the principle of holding Golden Bell Awards for Music perfectly.” said Han Xin’an. And more importantly, the Prasons Music Group, with a concept of pursuing “Big Market”and “Grand Culture”, strives to build China’s best and world-class piano production base in Yichang, which is consistent with the development strategy of Yichang and the target of China Musician Association. Therefore, the Little Golden Bell Award being launched in Yichang is quite reasonable.

　　Reporter also learned that the quarter-finals, the semi-finals and the finals will be held in Yichang in six days.

　　The Junior Group: The quarter-final and the semi-final will start from September 16 to September 19 in Jusong Music Hall of China Three Gorges University and the final will take place on September 20 in Yichang Theatre.

　　The College Group will compete for students solo, piano duet and teachers solo. The quarter-final and the semi-final of students solo will start from September 16 to September 19 in Yichang Library, the final on September 20 in Prasons Music. The semi-final of piano duet will take place on September 17 and the final on September 19 in Yichang Library. The quarter-final, semi-final and the final of teachers solo will be held on September 17, 19 and 20 respectively in Jusong Music Hall of China Three Gorges University.

　　Then out come winners of gold prize, silver prize, bronze prize of each group (prizes can be vacant) and there will be several honorable mentions. The instructors of the gold prize, silver prize and bronze prize winners will be awarded the title of the Outstanding Tutor. Units who make prominent contributions and achievements will win the Award of Excellent Organization.