How would you feel after winning more than a half a million dollars in an international piano competition you didn’t even know you’d entered? Ask Ralf Gothoni. The 48-year-old Finnish pianist, composer, conductor and chamber musician was named the winner of the 1994 Gilmore Artist Award given by the Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival of Kalamazoo, Mich. The award, totaling more than $500,000 (including $115,000 in financial assistance), is believed to be the largest prize in classical music. The Gilmore competition is unusual in that candidates are nominated and evaluated without their knowledge. Gothoni was secretly nominated by an international panel of 90 artists and teachers who had considered 70 pianists for the award. Gothoni received the first $20,000 installment of his prize at a private ceremony Wednesday in Battle Creek, Mich. When asked if he would accept it, he replied: “We shall see.”
