Eric Lu wins the 19th Chopin Competition!

On October 20, the final auditions of the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition came to an end. The 17-member jury, chaired by Garrick Ohlsson, awarded the following prizes:

MAIN PRIZES:
• 1st Prize – Eric Lu (USA)
• 2nd Prize – Kevin Chen (Canada)
• 3rd Prize – Zitong Wang (China)
• 4th Prize – Tianyao Lyu (China); Shiori Kuwahara (Japan)
• 5th Prize – Piotr Alexewicz (Poland); Vincent Ong (Malaysia)
• 6th Prize – William Yang (USA)

SPECIAL PRIZES:
• Polish Radio Award for the best performance of Mazurkas – Jehuda Prokopowicz (Poland)
• Warsaw Philharmonic Award for the best performance of a Concerto – Tianyao Lyu (China)
• Krystian Zimerman Award for the best performance of a Sonata – Zitong Wang (China)
• Fryderyk Chopin Society Award for the best performance of a Polonaise – Tianyou Li (China)
• Bella Davidovich Award for the best performance of a Ballade – Adam Kałduński (Poland)

The other finalists of the 19th Chopin Competition will receive equivalent distinctions funded by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute.

Tomorrow at 8 p.m. at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, the award ceremony and the first of three concerts by the winners will take place. The concert will be broadcast on the Chopin Institute's YouTube channel.

The course of the Competition and participants

The auditions for the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition began on 3 October, 2025. Eleven of the highest-rated pianists performed in the Finals. Accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrzej Boreyko, each of them performed one of Fryderyk Chopin's two piano concertos and Polonaise-Fantasy, Op. 61.

A record number of over 640 young artists from the farthest corners of the world applied to participate in the 19th Chopin Competition. 162 people took part in the preliminary rounds, while 84 performers from 19 countries competed in the main competition.

The largest group of participants were Chinese – the country's representation included as many as 28 pianists! In terms of the number of participants, the groups from Poland and Japan took second place (13 people each). Five Canadian citizens also performed on the Philharmonic stage, four pianists from the United States, three performers each from Chinese Taipei, South Korea, Great Britain, and Italy, as well as representatives from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Spain, Malaysia, Portugal, and Vietnam, among others.

Broadcasts

The international community of music lovers followed the auditions most closely on the YouTube channel of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute. Shiori Kuwahara's final performance attracted a record number of live viewers – over 71,000. The auditions were most frequently viewed in Japan, Poland, India, South Korea, and the United States. For the first time, recitals and concerts could also be listened to live on TikTok.  

The broadcasts from the Competition attracted hundreds of thousands of people to their TV sets and radio receivers – the entire event was available on TVP Kultura and Polish Radio.  

The 19th Chopin Competition was present on social media: on the Chopin Institute's Facebook profile (in five languages), Chinese Weibo, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. 

During the 15 days of auditions for the 19th Chopin Competition, we heard 102 hours of Chopin's music performed by young pianists from around the world.