XI Krystian Tkaczewski International Piano Competition
Busko-Zdrój
August 10 - 12, 2026
East Tennessee State University - Creative Arts Scholarship
Four-year scholarship (approx. 19, 000 USD a year, total - 76,000 USD)

Masashi Katayama, Japan
The virtuoso pianist is an expert in the interpretation of Russian piano music. As a sought-after pedagogue he is piano professor at the University of Arts in Osaka/Japan.
This successful pianist was born in Japan. He studied piano performance at the University of Music “Mozarteum” in Salzburg. He continued his studies at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and graduated at the University of Music and Drama in Hannover/Germany. The virtuoso pianist is prize winner of several international competitions such as „Citta di Senigallia“, „F. Busoni“ (Bolzano) und „Marguerite Long“ (Paris). More than 50 recitals per year as well as numerous CD productions (i. e. Skrjabin and Mussorgsky) show his artistic activities. Besides his pianistic career Masahi Katayama is in great demand as a pedagogue. First he had a position as an assistant of the well known pianist Andrei Gavrilov after understudying of his sudden illness.
Currently he is a piano professor at the University of Arts in Osaka/Japan. He is frequently invited to hold masterclasses in Japan and abroad.