The following excerpts from the Official Jury Manual outline basic rules for the Honens Second Jury.

Jurors must keep the Honens artistic philosophy foremost in mind when choosing artists to proceed further in the Competition, when placing the laureates in order, and when naming other prizewinners. The Jury Chairpersons ensure that these principles are indeed regarded and upheld.

All official meetings of the Juries are closed except to Jury members, the Official Mathematician to the Juries, official interpreters if needed, the Executive Director of the Competition, and the Competition’s Manager of Artistic Operations. (As described below, the collaborating artists, i.e. the conductor of the orchestra, the singer and the violinist, and the composer of the commissioned work, also attend certain meetings.) The official language of the Jury meetings is English.

Jury proceedings are confidential. Jurors may not discuss any aspect of those proceedings or of competing pianists’ performances with each other or with other persons except during the official meetings. Others present at Jury proceedings are prohibited from discussing any aspect of those proceedings with anyone at any time. It is the responsibility of the Chairperson of the Second Jury to announce the decisions of the Jury after the Quarterfinals and Semifinals. The decisions of the Second Jury after the Finals will be communicated to Honens’ Executive Director, who in turn will inform the person or persons responsible for announcing the result publicly. Nobody may disclose publicly any individual or composite votes.

The collaborating violinist, the composer of the specially commissioned work, the singer, and the conductor of the Finals are invited to appropriate meetings of the Second Jury to cast a vote based on their impressions of performances in which they collaborated.

There must be no communication of any kind between Jury members and competing pianists until the announcement of the laureates and other prizewinners after the Finals.

Should any member of either the First or Second Juries have or have had previously a professional or personal relationship with a pianist whose recorded or live performance he/she is judging, he/she must notify his/her colleagues during an official Jury meeting. It will be the responsibility of each Jury Chairperson to rule whether the member should or should not vote on that pianist’s performance, taking into account the closeness and time of such relationship. In a case where the relationship is or has been within the previous five years one of regular or occasional teacher and student, the Jury Chairperson must rule that the member may not vote on that pianist’s performance. Jury members must remain silent and undemonstrative during Competition performances.

Honens provides all members of the First and Second Juries with information needed for the evaluation of pianists’ performances. This information is contained in an official binder. It is the responsibility of each juror to make and keep comprehensive notes about all Competition performances in his/her binder. The notes should be designed to help both at the time of voting and at the meetings with pianists on the day following the announcement of prizewinners. Nothing written in the binders by Jury members may be publicly disclosed before, during or after the Competition. The binders and their contents remain the property of Esther Honens International Piano Competition Foundation and may be destroyed after the Competition at the discretion of Honens management.

Should any of these rules be broken, Honens may at its discretion relieve a Jury member of his/her duties and/or disqualify a pianist or pianists taking part.