The Cliburn competition has announced the 30 competitors selected for the 15th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. It begins this May in Fort Worth.

Dasol Kim, from South Korea, got in by playing 24 Chopin preludes at his audition. He chose them “because it’s just one big work that’s really compact and really pianistic, in my opinion. So I’ve decided I can show as many qualities as possible, in one piece.”

Kim is one of  five South Korean pianists selected for this year’s Cliburn.  Russia has the most with six. The U.S., four.

Hundreds of pianists submitted applications, then 141auditoned live for screening judges in cities around the world.

In all, 15 countries will be represented in the contest considered among the most important of its kind   in the world. Top players can establish international careers that can last a lifetime.

The competition happens every four years. It begins  May 25th  in Fort Worth.  Here are your 2017 competitors:

Martin James Bartlett, United Kingdom, age 20
Sergey Belyavskiy, Russia, 23
Alina Bercu, Romania, 27
Kenneth Broberg, United States, 23
Luigi Carroccia, Italy, 25
Han Chen, Taiwan, 25
Rachel Cheung, Hong Kong, 25
Yury Favorin, Russia, 30
Madoka Fukami, Japan, 28
Mehdi Ghazi, Algeria/Canada, 28

Caterina Grewe, Germany, 29
Daniel Hsu, United States, 19
Alyosha Jurinic, Croatia, 28
Nikolay Khozyainov, Russia, 24
Dasol Kim, South Korea, 28
Honggi Kim, South Korea, 25
Su Yeon Kim, South Korea, 23
Julia Kociuban, Poland, 25
Rachel Kudo, United States, 30
EunAe Lee, South Korea, 29
Ilya Maximov, Russia, 30
Sun-A Park, United States, 29
Leonardo Pierdomenico, Italy, 24
Philipp Scheucher, Austria, 24

Ilya Shmukler, Russia, 22
Yutong Sun, China, 21
Yekwon Sunwoo, South Korea, 28
Georgy Tchaidze, Russia, 29
Tristan Teo, Canada, 20
Tony Yike Yang, Canada, 18