Canadian Bruce Xiaoyu Liu won first prize in the prestigious international Chopin piano competition, which is held every five years, the jury announced at the Warsaw Philharmonic on Wednesday evening.
“Being able to play Chopin in Warsaw is one of the best things you can imagine”, reacted the young pianist of 24 years. He edged Japan’s Kyohei Sorita, 27, and Italo-Slovenian Alexander Gadkiev, 26, tied for second, followed by Spaniard Martin Garcia, 24.
Born in Paris and graduated from the Montreal Conservatory, Bruce Xiaoyu Liu has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Orchester des Amériques.
Eighty-seven pianists from all over the world, out of more than 500 who had submitted their application, had been selected by the jury to participate in the competition. About half came from Asia, where Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849), a great Franco-Polish composer and pianist of the Romantic period, is particularly cherished.
The competition should have been held in 2020 but had been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a first since World War II.
The Chopin Competition, launched in 1927, often marked a milestone in the careers of several great pianists, including the Italian Maurizio Pollini (1960), the Argentinian Martha Argerich (1965), the Polish Krystian Zimerman (1975) and the Chinese Yundi Li (2000).
The announcement of the winners of the 2021 edition, broadcast live on YouTube and on the competition’s mobile application, was followed by a record number of 70,000 spectators, according to the organizers.