Chopin Competition reaches final stage
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
17.10.2015 10:56
The jury of the 17th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw has announced the names of ten finalists.
Szymon Nehring is the only Pole to advance to the final of the Chopin competition. Photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak
Pianists from eight countries will compete for the top accolades: two Americans (Kate Liu and Eric Lu), two Canadians (Tony Yang and Charles Richard-Hamelin) and participants from Poland (Szymon Nehring), Russia (Dmitry Shishkin), Croatia (Aljosa Jurinic), Japan (Aimi Kobayashi), Latvia (Georgijs Osokins) and South Korea (Seong-Jin Cho).
In the final stage, starting on Sunday, they will perform one of Chopin’s Piano Concertos (in E minor or F minor) with the Warsaw Philharmonic under its Music Director Jacek Kaspszyk. Prizewinners’ names are to be announced in the late evening hours on Tuesday. First Prize winner will receive the Gold Medal, EUR 30,000 in cash and numerous invitations to concerts.
Poland’s only finalist, Szymon Nehring, celebrated his twentieth birthday last month. He started playing the piano at the age of five, attending primary and secondary music schools in the southern city of Kraków.
He is currently a second-year student of Professor Stefan Wojtas at the Music Academy in Bydgoszcz, northern Poland. He is a prizewinner of piano competitions in Budapest, St Petersburg, Narva (Estonia) and Rome. (mk/rg/rk)