Overview
- Canada’s Kevin Chen took silver with €40,000 and China’s Zitong Wang earned bronze with €35,000, with results announced in the early hours after the finals.
- A 17-member jury chaired by Garrick Ohlsson deliberated for hours, with the chair citing very difficult artistic discussions before the decision.
- The final featured 11 pianists required to play Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op. 61, plus a concerto with the Warsaw Philharmonic under Andrey Boreyko, after roughly 45 minutes of orchestra rehearsal.
- Organisers received more than 600 applications, selecting 84 for the first round in an edition held every five years in Chopin’s homeland.
- Lu, 27, is a Curtis Institute graduate and the 2018 Leeds winner who has performed with leading orchestras, and he called the victory a dream come true.