This year 185 young pianists applied for the 2007 Cleveland International Piano Competition. Thirty-five pianists from 16 countries were chosen to compete. “Long before the first-place winner is handed $50,000 — the largest award in the world for a piano competition — and about 40 concert engagements, the 35 pianists must prove themselves in Baroque, Classical, Romantic and 20th- or 21st-century works of their choice as well as a Chopin etude.”