Behind the scenes notes. 18th day

Eric Lu from the United States is the winner of the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition. The second prize went to Kevin Chen of Canada, and the third prize was awarded to Zitong Wang of China. The 17-member jury, chaired by Garrick Ohlsson, announced the results Tuesday night at 2:30 a.m. after more than five hours of deliberation. 

‘I’m very pleased to be standing here to deliver the verdict that we’ve agreed on, finally. We worked very hard and we’ve had a number of very difficult discussions involving our opinions about artistic matters and it did really take this long, but we actually got rid of those blocks and […] I think we have a fine decision for this year’s competition. I congratulate all the candidates,’ said Mr. Ohlsson.

The fourth prize is shared by Shiori Kuwahara of Japan and Tianyao Lyu of China. The fifth has also been given to two pianists, Piotr Alexewicz of Poland and Vincent Ong of Malaysia, while the sixth prize went to William Yang of the United States.

The loudest cheering could be heard after the Jury announced that the special prize for best performance of the mazurkas goes to Yehuda Prokopowicz from Poland, and also when another Pole, Adam Kałduński, was awarded the special prize for best performance of the Ballade.

The foyer of the National Philharmonic was filled with a multi-national crowd, who stood there for many hours, chatting, or just sat on the floor, as they waited for the verdict. 

In the crowd was Marc Laforêt, winner of the 2nd prize of Chopin Competition in 1985, who – when asked about his opinion – said the Jury was facing a very tough decision, since all the finalists had excellent skills, but also represented different types of the interpretation of Chopin’s music.

In the crowd was also Josh McKinney, an industrial mechanic and amateur musician from Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., whom I first met last week as he was standing in line for an entry pass. ‘This is really such an exciting moment, this is a really big thing. I have my choice for a winner and he’s from the States,’ McKinney said.

On hearing that he was the winner, Eric Lu said that his dream has come true.

The laureates will receive their awards during a ceremony at the Teatr Wielki – National Opera in Warsaw on Tuesday.

Monika Ścisłowska-Sakowicz