The Friends of Chopin Australia are dedicated to exploring and promoting Chopin in Australia's musical life through research, performance and community engagement.

Chief among the Friends activities is helping to stage the Australian International Chopin Piano Competition, along with its partners the Australian National University School of Music, and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Canberra.

The Competition is an opportunity for young Australian musicians to compete with their international peers on the world stage, to promote the highest calibre of musicianship, to promote a deeper understanding of the music of Chopin in Australia, and to provide opportunities for deeper cultural understanding and exchange between the Australian and Polish communities, and between Australian and international musical communities.

The Friends also conduct research into the reception of Chopin's music in Australia from the early colony to the present day. We currently have a number of projects focussing on the pianists performing Chopin in the early colony, Chopin as he appears in the AMEB syllabus from its predecessor organisations to the present, and Chopin among the ANZACs.

The Friends are also engaged in the historical performance aspect of Chopin's music. The Friends currently sponsor an 1847 Pleyel concert grand at the School of Music, and are engaged in the restoration and performance of an 1857 Erard concert grand (acquired by a member of the Friends in Canberra, this piano has been in Australia since at least the early 1880's, and perhaps earlier, and may have come to Australia through Palings, it was sold from the factory in England to a friend of Chopin's in Scotland).