Solo performance, chamber music, and collaboration with orchestra are all essential for concert pianists. These elements are therefore integral to the Honens search for the Complete Artist.
For the 2025 Honens International Piano Competition, Semifinalists perform solo works and collaborate with a cellist. Finalists perform with a string quintet and orchestra. The choice of collaborating musicians allows for both a meaningful musical partnership and a mentorship opportunity for all Competition pianists.
Semifinals
Rachel Mercer
Cello
Described as a “pure chamber musician” (Globe and Mail) creating “moments of pure magic” (Toronto Star), Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician across five continents.
Grand Prize winner of the 2001 Vriendenkrans Competition (Amsterdam), Mercer is Principal Cello of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa) and Co-Artistic Director of the “5 at the First” Chamber Music Series (Hamilton). With a first love of chamber music, she regularly collaborates with her longtime duo partner, pianist Angela Park, and was cellist of JUNO Award winning piano quartet Ensemble Made In Canada (2008-2020), the AYR Trio (2010-2020), and the Aviv Quartet (2002-2010).
Mercer has given masterclasses across North America, South Africa, Israel, and has given talks on performance, careers, and the music business. An advocate for new Canadian music, she has commissioned and premiered works including cello concerti by Stewart Goodyear and Kevin Lau, as well as solo and chamber works by Vivian Fung, Andrew Downing, Alice Ho, Abigail Richardson-Schulte, John Burge, and Jocelyn Morlock. Mercer can be heard on the Naxos, Naxos Canadian Classics, Centrediscs, Analekta, Atma, Dalia Classics, and EnT-T record labels, and released a critically acclaimed album of the Bach Suites on Pipistrelle in March 2014, recorded on the 1696 Bonjour Stradivarius Cello from the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank. Mercer plays a 17th century cello from Northern Italy.
Iman Habibi
Composer
Hailed as “a giant in talent” (Penticton Herald), “whose technical mastery is matched by his musical and cultural literacy,” (Hudson-Housatonic Arts) Iman Habibi’s is an Iranian-Canadian pianist and composer. His music and performances have been programmed by Carnegie Hall and the Marilyn Horne Foundation (New York), Tanglewood Music Festival (Massachusetts), the Canadian Opera Company and Tapestry Opera (Toronto), New York Festival of Song, Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Center, Vox Novus (New York), Atlantic Music Festival (Maine), the BCScene Festival (Ottawa), and the Powell Street Festival (Vancouver), among others.
He has received numerous awards including First Prize at the SOCAN Foundation’s Awards for Young Audio Visual Composers for two consecutive years (2011-2012), The International Composers’ Award at the Esoterics’ POLYPHONOS (2012), The Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Awards for Emerging Artist in Music (2011), Brehm Prize in Choral Music (2016).
His portfolio of compositions includes dozens of commissions for orchestra, choir, chambers ensembles, soloists, and film. Habibi earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Michigan under the mentorship of professors Evan Chambers, Michael Daugherty, and Bright Sheng. Iman Habibi is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre and is represented by SOCAN in Canada.
As a pianist, Habibi’s recent appearances included a performance of Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, as well as the premiere of his concerto for two pianos and orchestra, Amesha Spenta, with Ann Arbor Camerata. He has performed his own Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Atlantic Music Festival and the Prince George Symphony orchestras. Habibi is well-known for his collaborations with his wife, pianist Deborah Grimmett. The two formed a duo in 2010, Piano Pinnacle, which won first prize at the United States International Duo Piano Competition.
Finals I
Isidore String Quartet
Winners of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022, the New York City-based Isidore String Quartet was formed in 2019 with a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertory. The quartet is heavily influenced by the Juilliard String Quartet and the idea of “approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.”
The Isidore String Quartet has appeared on major series in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Durham, Washington (JFK Center), San Antonio, Toronto, Montréal, and Ottawa, and has collaborated with a number of eminent performers including James Ehnes, Jeremy Denk, Shai Wosner, and Jon Nakamatsu. Their 2023 / 2024 season features appearances in Berkeley (Cal Performances), Boston (Celebrity Series), Washington, D.C. (Phillips Collection), New York (92nd St. Y), Chicago, Baltimore, Ann Arbor, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Tucson, Phoenix, Santa Fe, La Jolla, Aspen, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and at Dartmouth College and Spivey Hall in Georgia, among others. European highlights include Edinburgh, Lucerne, Brussels, Amsterdam, Hanover, Frankfurt, and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.
The name Isidore recognizes the ensemble’s musical connection to the Juilliard String Quartet—one of the group’s early members was legendary violinist Isidore Cohen. Additionally, it acknowledges a shared affection for a certain libation—legend has it a Greek monk named Isidore concocted the first genuine vodka recipe for the Grand Duchy of Moscow!
Finals II
Elias Grandy
Conductor
Elias Grandy’s international profile is rapidly rising by conducting first-class orchestras and opera productions in Europe, North America, and Asia. Hailed by press as “passionate and full of temperament,” “vigorous and equally precise,” and praised for his ability to “grasp psychological subtleties under a microscope,” the German-Japanese conductor recently gave highly successful debuts with renowned orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic, and Minnesota Orchestra.
In 2023 / 2024 the energetic, charismatic conductor returns to Frankfurt Radio Symphony, National Youth Orchestra of Germany, and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Tokyo and gives debuts with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires, and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken. Furthermore, he will take the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie Chemnitz on a tour to Poland as their Conductor in Residence for 23 / 24 and appear frequently with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra.
Equally devoted as an opera conductor, Grandy is passionate about theatre and musically shaping the narrative of each drama. In recent years, he has conducted highly acclaimed productions of Elektra and Carmen at Minnesota Opera and Opera Nikikai Tokyo, Werther and A Village Romeo and Juliet at Frankfurt Opera, Un ballo in aschera at Aalto-Theatre Essen, and Rusalka at Portland Opera.
Grandy studied cello and conducting in Munich, Basel, and Berlin. He worked as a cellist in orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Komische Oper Berlin. He started his conducting career as Resident Conductor at Staatstheater Darmstadt and shortly after won the prestigious Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition (Germany). In 2015, he was named Music Director of Heidelberg’s Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he held until 2023.
Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (CPO) is a pillar of Calgary’s vibrant arts community and since 1955, has grown to be one of Canada’s most celebrated live music ensembles. Each Season, the CPO presents classical masterworks, pop favourites, bold collaborations, and cutting-edge new works. Led by Music Director Rune Bergmann, the CPO consistently attracts world renowned guest artists and dynamic conductors. The Orchestra welcomes over 100,000 visitors annually and, in 2017, launched its live-stream initiative—an immersive, digital concert experience for audiences around the world.
