Yamaha began offering pianos at major piano competitions, and has been using them as testing grounds for prototype development. At first, few contestants would even try the Yamaha at a competition’s piano selection, but gradually players began to select Yamaha, and then players began to win on Yamaha. Now almost all players give serious consideration to Yamaha at competitions, and it is not unusual to find a majority of finalists performing on Yamaha. From 1990, two of the world’s most prestigious competitions, the Chopin and Tchaikovsky, began to place Yamaha pianos on their stages, and it was a milestone when Denis Matsuev won 1st prize at the Tchaikovsky competition on a Yamaha in 1998. Later in 2002 Ayako Uehara also won 1st prize at the same competition again using a Yamaha.
