(Toronto) First place for Montreal pianist Bruce Xiaoyu Liu at the 18e Chopin International Piano Competition is a victory that will be shared in a way by the most prestigious music schools in Quebec, suggested one of his peers.
Charles Richard-Hamelin, who lives in Montreal and won second prize in the 2015 Warsaw competition, says pianists from the Quebec metropolis will certainly attract more attention as a result of this supreme distinction.
“We’re on a roll – something is happening in Montreal,” the 32-year-old musician said in an interview from his home in the metropolis.
“It’s a success for Bruce, of course, but it’s a success for our institutions here. We were both almost fully trained in Montreal, ”he said.
24-year-old Bruce Xiaoyu Liu was named the recipient of the € 40,000 (CA $ 57,500) award on Thursday, recognition that instantly elevates his status in the music community and will send him performing in countries around the world. .
“Just second prize was a big enough deal to change my life, so I can imagine what Bruce is going through,” said Charles Richard-Hamelin.
There is an eight-year age difference between the two pianists, but Charles Richard-Hamelin says he has known Bruce Xiaoyu Liu for some time. They faced each other twice, he said, with Liu winning the first time and Richard-Hamelin winning the second time.
He indicated that they had lost contact a bit, and that he was impressed with his progress when he saw him in the contest.
He spoke of one of the most impressive pianists he has ever seen.
Bruce Xiaoyu Liu, who was born in Paris before moving to Canada, graduated from the Montreal Conservatory of Music where he studied with Richard Raymond for much of his youth.
The duo first met when Liu, then a teenager, approached Richard Raymond to ask him to study privately under his direction.
Already having his plate full of teaching duties at the conservatory, Richard Raymond said he told Liu that he could not take such responsibility. Still, in the days that followed, he said he couldn’t get his head off the “astonishing” level of control Liu had shown at his young age at the piano.
“I said to myself, I have to go get this boy,” recalls Richard Raymond.
“So I got back in touch with him and convinced him to come to school and that’s how it started. ”
Liu then studied at the University of Montreal where he worked with Dang Thai Son, another winner of the first prize of the Chopin competition in 1980.
Richard Raymond said he can’t wait to give Liu a hug when he returns to Montreal and share a few words about his great accomplishment.
“Sometimes you teach very talented kids, but you don’t know how far they’re going to go,” he said.
“But in this case it worked, so when it does, we have to celebrate. ”