Held every five years, the International Chopin Piano Competition (often referred to as the Chopin Competition) concluded on Oct. 21, with Canadian pianist Bruce (Xiaoyu) Liu winning the first prize and being awarded 40,000 euros (approximately US$45,000) and contracts for records and concerts.
Through three weeks of playing Chopin’s works, 87 young pianists from all over the world competed in Warsaw, Poland. The program included technical challenges like the Etudes, musical challenges like Polish dances — mazurkas and polonaises — as well as concertos with an orchestra.
Liu was born in Paris to Chinese parents before emigrating to Canada when he was a child. He started to learn piano at the age of eight and graduated from the Conservatoire de musique de Quebec a Montreal, under the supervision of Canadian Vietnamese pianist Dang Thai Son, winner of the 10th Chopin Competition in 1980.
Photo: EPA-EFE 照片：歐新社
Arguably the most important competition in the piano world, the Chopin Competition is named after Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin and was first held in 1927. The 18th session was originally scheduled to be held in 2020 but was postponed to this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the big names of classical music like Maurizio Polini of Italy, Marta Argerich of Argentina and Krystian Zimerman of Poland went on to become international superstars after winning the Chopin Competition. The renowned “piano poet” Fou Ts’ong, who died of COVID-19 in the UK last year, won third prize and Best Mazurkas at the Chopin Competition in 1955.
For Taiwan, just like its impressive achievements in this year’s Olympics, three Taiwanese pianists, namely Chang Kai-min, Su Szu-yu and Hsieh Wei-ting, advanced to the second round of the competition along with 42 other international contestants. Like the US, three of whose pianists also advanced to the second round, this is Taiwan’s best performance so far at the Chopin Competition in terms of the number of contestants.
(Lin Lee-kai, Taipei Times)
五年一度的蕭邦國際鋼琴大賽，十月二十一日落幕，由加拿大籍鋼琴家劉曉禹摘下首獎，獲得四萬歐元（約為新台幣一百三十一萬元）獎金，以及唱片與演奏會合約。
在波蘭華沙舉行、為期三週的比賽中，八十七位來自世界各地的青年鋼琴家輪番演奏蕭邦作品，曲目包括考驗技巧的練習曲，考驗音樂性的馬祖卡舞曲及波蘭舞曲等波蘭舞蹈音樂，以及與管弦樂團合奏協奏曲。
劉曉禹出生於巴黎，父母來自中國，童年時舉家移民加拿大。他八歲開始學鋼琴，後畢業於蒙特利爾音樂學院，師事加拿大籍越南裔鋼琴家鄧泰山。鄧泰山亦為一九八○年第十屆蕭邦鋼琴大賽冠軍得主。
蕭邦鋼琴大賽可說是鋼琴界最重要的比賽，以波蘭作曲家弗雷德里克‧蕭邦為名，一九二七年首次舉辦。第十八屆比賽原定於二○二○年舉行，因COVID-19疫情而延至今年。
先前的蕭邦鋼琴大賽首獎得主，例如義大利的毛里齊奧‧波里尼、阿根廷的瑪塔‧阿格麗希、波蘭的克里斯提安‧齊瑪曼等，日後都成為名家巨星，享譽國際。去年因感染COVID-19而在英國辭世的著名「鋼琴詩人」傅聰，亦曾在一九五五年獲得蕭邦鋼琴大賽第三名，以及「最佳馬祖卡演奏獎」。
對台灣而言，如同今年奧運的亮眼表現，本屆蕭邦鋼琴大賽有張凱閔、蘇思羽及謝維庭等三位台灣參賽者晉級第二輪，在第二輪的四十五位各國好手中，台灣拿下三席，與美國並列，是台灣以晉級人數而言有史以來最佳成績。
（台北時報林俐凱）
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