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This week, six of the world's greatest pianists sat in a Hamline University auditorium in St. Paul, Minnesota and watched...a piano.  They were judges, actually watching the audition of a young Israeli musician. Her original performance in New York was recorded on a computer disk and then replicated on this grand piano to the tiniest detail.

MPR Photo/Jeff Horwich

This is the second biennial Piano-e-Competition -- in which, until the final rounds, the competitors and judges are never in the same place.  The e-Competition was the brainstorm of pianist and University of Minnesota professor Alexander Braginsky. (Jeff Horwich guest-hosts.)

The final rounds of the competition are going on this week and next.  Minnesota Public Radio's classical music service is streaming live video of the competition and will broadcast finals next Thursday and Friday.