{"id":228993,"date":"2025-10-21T09:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T09:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/228993\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T09:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T09:20:08","slug":"canadian-pianist-kevin-chen-takes-silver-at-international-chopin-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/228993\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian pianist Kevin Chen takes silver at international Chopin competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Kevin Chen performs during the Chopin competition on Oct. 20. The 20-year-old said the competition is mentally and physically exhausting.Aleksandra Szmigiel\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s Kevin Chen has finished second behind Eric Lu of the United States at the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, considered by many to be the Olympics of the piano.<\/p>\n

The three-week competition, devoted to the work of the Polish-born composer, is open to pianists aged 16 to 30 and is held every five years in Warsaw\u2019s Philharmonic Concert Hall. More than 600 pianists applied to enter this year and only 84 were selected for the first round, which started on Oct. 2. The field was whittled down to 11 finalists. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. pianist Eric Lu placed first.Aleksandra Szmigiel\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Mr. Lu, 27, took home \u20ac60,000, or $98,000, in prize money as well as a gold medal. Mr. Chen, 20, received a silver medal and \u20ac40,000. Zitong Wang of China won bronze and \u20ac35,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a dream come true,\u201d Mr. Lu said. \u201cI\u2019m so grateful for this honour, and grateful for all the Chopin lovers around the world who watched online and all the audience here in Warsaw.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision by the 17-member jury took several hours and was announced at around 2:30 a.m. local time Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked very hard, and we had a number of very difficult discussions involving our opinions about artistic matters,\u201d said jury chair Garrick Ohlsson. \u201cAnd it did really take this long, but we actually got rid of the roadblocks. And I think we have a fine decision for this year\u2019s competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warsaw buzzes with final performances at Chopin contest<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the third time in a row that a Canadian has finished among the top. Bruce Liu won the 2020<\/a> edition, which was held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Charles Richard-Hamelin placed second in 2015. <\/p>\n

The competition dates back to 1927 and has launched the careers of pianists such as Maurizio Pollini, Martha Argerich and Arthur Moreira Lima. It is renowned for its intensity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s been quite long,\u201d Mr. Chen said with a weary smile after his final performance Monday night. \u201cIt\u2019s also quite exhausting, even from a physical perspective, also mentally. I didn\u2019t really expect to be so tired at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Chen performs during the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland, on Oct. 16.Krzysztof Szlezak\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Mr. Chen said he felt ill after the second round and found the length of time between rounds difficult. \u201cSometimes just waiting to play is a little bit challenging, since everyone else is working and then I feel like I have to practise as well,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Competitors in the final round had only 45 minutes to rehearse with the orchestra. \u201cIt was only enough for basically one run through and just a few little details,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Four other Canadians<\/a> took part: Eric Guo, Athena Deng, Ryan Wang<\/a> and Victoria Wong, who is Canadian and American. Mr. Guo made it to the third round, and the others were eliminated in the first round.<\/p>\n

Mr. Chen, 20, has been a prodigy since he started banging out nursery rhymes on a keyboard at the age of two. When he was nine years old, he earned an Associate Diploma, or ARCT, from the Royal Conservatory of Music, its highest academic award. In 2023, he won the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv and took top honours at the Concours de Gen\u00e8ve in 2022. He\u2019s currently studying at the Hochschule f\u00fcr Musik, Theater und Medien in Hanover, Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just the most humble and sweet and pure human being,\u201d said Heather Edwards, who is on the board of the Royal Conservatory of Music and was in Warsaw for the final. She described his playing as \u201cjust this incredible energy, and it\u2019s so pure. Every note is an offering of love, every single note.\u201d<\/p>\n

Janet Lopinski, president of the Canadian Chopin Society, said Mr. Chen is \u201ca complete pianist, because he\u2019s virtuosic. He\u2019s brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Lopinski, who has also been in Warsaw for the competition, added that Mr. Chen is technically sound and knows the music extremely well. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very loyal to the text, but also intuitively musical. So it\u2019s this beautiful combination of artistry and technical skill and thoughtfulness connecting with the music,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Canadian piano prodigy Ryan Wang is headed for the competition of a lifetime<\/a><\/p>\n

All competitors in the final had to play Chopin\u2019s Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major, Op. 61, as well as one of the Piano Concertos: in E minor, Op. 11, or in F minor, Op. 21, accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra (Mr. Chen chose the E minor). <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always nice to play with an orchestra,\u201d Mr. Chen said Monday. \u201cI feel less lonely, and I think that also helps me take away some of the stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he said it was difficult switching from one piece to the other since they span Chopin\u2019s life \u2013 the concertos date from his younger days while the Polonaise was one of his last compositions. <\/p>\n

\u201cBefore going on stage, I was trying to get myself into Polonaise-Fantasy mode and to try not to think of the concerto so much, since it\u2019s a completely different piece,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Few other competitions concentrate on Chopin\u2019s music. \u201cI think it\u2019s very different playing Chopin, since everyone sort of knows his music is very popular, and everyone has their own opinion on it,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s always challenging. It\u2019s always risky to play Chopin in a competition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Kevin Chen performs during the Chopin competition on Oct. 20. The 20-year-old said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,75,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-228993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-entertainment","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}