FESTIVAL OVERVIEW

Festival, including Final Competition Rounds: August 4-8 2025

Competition Semifinals: August 4, 2025

The International Keyboard Odyssiad® & Festival, U.S.A., is a summer piano competition and festival featuring more than a dozen guest artists and pianists in daily masterclasses, matinee concerts, presentations on topics such as repertoire, performance and pedagogy, live Semifinal and Final Rounds of the Olympic-style Odyssiad® Competition, and enthralling evening and matinee concerts by internationally renowned pianists, including Cliburn Gold Medalists. Participation is open to all those who love the piano and its repertoire, including students, professionals, teachers, competitors, and piano enthusiasts of all ages.

The Semifinal and Final Rounds of the Odyssiad® Competition are FREE and open to the public. See the schedule for details on dates, times, and locations. Other Festival events, such as masterclasses and special presentations, are paid events requiring an individual ticket or festival pass to enter and observe. Evening concert tickets are available for purchase at CSUArtsTickets.com. Festival registrants receive admittance to all events with their pass, including evening concerts, and do not need to buy tickets.

The Odyssiad® Festival includes masterclasses with guest artists, presentations on special topics, matinee concerts, the LIVE Semifinal and Final Rounds of the Odyssiad® Solo and Concerto Competitions, and riveting evening concerts by world-renowned pianists.

Anyone signed up for the festival may attend all festival activities, such as recitals, masterclasses, special presentations, and the live Semifinal and Final Rounds for the Solo and Concerto Divisions of the Odyssiad® Competition. Festival registrants also receive tickets to all five of the evening concerts.

2025 Guest Artists

Guest Artists for the 2025 Odyssiad® Festival include cellist Zuill Bailey (Grammy-Award Winning Cellist) with Bryan Wallick (Horowitz Gold Medalist, Kyiv; Professor, Colorado State University); one of the Medalists of the 2025 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (to be determined in May/June of 2025); Yaron Kohlberg, President of Piano/Cleveland and CIPC; and Dongni Xie, Gold Medalist, 2017 International Keyboard Odyssiad® & Festival, U.S.A.

Additional guest artists, judges, and master teachers include Master Teachers Mikhail Voskresensky and Charlotte Hu; Official Odyssiad® Staff Accompanists Mikhail Berestnov, Daria Kiseleva, and Jooyeon Chang; Devin Patrick Hughes (Conductor, Boulder Symphony and Symphony of the Rockies); Odyssiad® Competition Master of Ceremonies, Scott Wheeler, and many others.

Join us at the 2025 Odyssiad® Festival

    • Register and pay online for the Odyssiad® Pass.

    • The festival registration fee admits one person to all daily sessions, including masterclasses, presentations, matinee concerts, the LIVE Semifinal and Final Rounds of the Odyssiad® Competition, panel discussions, evening concerts, and social events.

    • Register and pay online.

    • The festival registration fee admits one person to all daily sessions, including masterclasses, presentations, mini-recitals, the LIVE Semifinal and Final Rounds of the Odyssiad® Competition, panel discussions, evening concerts, and social events.

    • Odyssiad® Semifinalists must notify IKOF staff of their intent to participate in the festival, register for the festival, and pay the discounted fee of $250 by July 5, 2025, to perform in one of the festival masterclasses.

    • Ala Carte tickets to individual masterclasses or specific daily festival sessions are available for purchase at the registration table for $20 USD each for non-festival participants.

    • Cash or check only.

  • Tickets to evening concerts for the general public and non-festival registrants are available at the CSU Box office one hour before concerts or online at csuartstickets.com.

    • Private lessons are available during the festival with a select number of guest artists.

    • Private lessons are optional and can be arranged at the Festival Registration Table for $100 per hour.

    • Cash or check only; no credit cards.

    • Requests for private lessons and a sign-up sheet will be available at the registration table.