At the age of twenty, Ivan Krpan has won the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition 2017, one of the world’s most prestigious piano competitions.
Mr. Krpan, who is a 5th year student at the Music Academy in Zagreb, was born in Zagreb in 1997 into a musical family and began studying the piano at the age of six at the Blagoje Bersa Music School in Zagreb, under the tutelage of Renata Strojin Richter.
From 2013, he has been studying piano with Ruben Dalibaltayan at the Music Academy in Zagreb. He has won several first prizes in national and international piano competitions; prize wins of note include first prizes at the 12th Piano Competition “Les Rencontres Internationales des Jeunes Pianistes” Grez Doiceau in Belgium in 2014, the International Piano Competition Young Virtuosi in Zagreb in 2014, the International Piano Competition for Young Musicians in Enschede (Netherlands) and the Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists. He achieved 2nd prize in the International Danube Piano Competition in Ulm in 2014 and same year he won a special prize awarded by the Dean of the Zagreb Music Academy and the 4th prize at the 1st International Zhuhai Mozart Competition in Zhuhai, China. He also won the annual Ivo Vuljević prize awarded by the Jeunesses Musicales Croatia for the best young musician in Croatia in 2015. More recent accolades include the 3rd prize at the 10th Moscow International Frederick Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in 2016. The Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra has granted him the Young Musician of the Year Award in 2016. Furthermore, Mr. Krpan was awarded a scholarship from the International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein and takes regularly part in the intensive music weeks and activities offered by the Academy.
Ivan has performed in the Wiener Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Santa Cecilia hall in Rome and Gewandhaus in Leipzig. He has collaborated with the Haydn Orchestra from Bolzano, Belgian National Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, Daegu Symphony Orchestra, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra.
