Former parliamentary Speaker Bronwyn Bishop was on hand to assist Piers Lane draw the running order for the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia this week. The Federal Member for Mackellar, who also happens to be the President and one of the founding members of the Friends of the Competition, was a keynote speaker at the event held at the Scots College in Sydney’s Bellevue Hill.

^{Piers Lane with Neville Grace and Marcus Barker}

Bishop joined the Competition’s Artistic Director Piers Lane, Chairman Neville Grace and Classic FM presenter Damian Beaumont in expressing their excitement at some of the innovations introduced for what will be the 11th outing for the competition and the first under Lane’s artistic guidance. Apart from a starry list of jurors, which includes names such as Nikolai Demidenko, Carl Vine, Hamish Milne and Orli Shaham, the competition’s new Artistic Patron, Valery Gergiev is offering the winners an opportunity to perform in St. Petersburg in the Mariinsky International Piano Festival and in other major cities of Russia and Europe.

The draw, which took place out of a top hat rustled up for the purpose by General Manager Marcus...