South Korean wins gold in 2022 Cliburn International Piano Competition | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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South Korean takes first in ‘Olympics of Piano,’ finals of Cliburn competition in Fort Worth

Yunchan Lim from South Korea performs Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op. 30 his contribution to the final concert of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth.
Yunchan Lim from South Korea performs Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op. 30 his contribution to the final concert of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth.

A day after receiving the largest standing ovation at the Cliburn since Olga Kern’s Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3 in 2001 (and one of the longest standing ovations in Cliburn history), Yunchan Lim, 18, from South Korea, has been crowned the winner of the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth.

He is the youngest ever winner of the gold medal.

The silver medal was awarded to Russian pianist Anna Geniushene, 31, and the bronze medal was awarded to Ukrainian pianist Dmytro Choni, 28.

Lim’s winning performance was Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, op. 37 and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op. 30.

He was also awarded the audience choice award and the jury discretion award for best performance of a new work.

Lim, who will receive a $100,000 award along with his title of champion, started his piano competition career at 14. He also will receive three years of individualized career management, including U.S. and international concert tours, and record a studio album, according to a Cliburn news release.

Lim said he will have to wait until he returns to Korea to decide what to do with everything included in the first-place award.

“I am still a student and I feel like I have to learn a lot still,” Lim said. “This is a great competition and I feel the burden of receiving this great honor and award so I will just push myself to live up to the honor I received today.”

He’ll discuss with his teacher back in Korea what the best next moves for his career will be.

Commenting on Lim’s win, Jury Chair and conductor Marin Alsop said, “It has been inspiring to witness a talent of Yunchan’s magnitude. All finalists showed exceptional musicality and artistry, yet Yunchan stood out among them. Throughout these last three weeks, but particularly his spectacular performance of Rachmaninov’s third piano concerto showed that even at the age of 18, he already exhibits exceptional depth and dazzling technique. I look forward to seeing him develop in the years to come and our future collaborations.”

Lim placed second at the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists in 2018 and received the Chopin Special Award there. His performances across South Korea include those with the Korean Orchestra Festival, Korea Symphony, Suwon Philharmonic and Busan Philharmonic Orchestras. He also played in Madrid, at the invitation of the Korea Cultural Center in Spain.

The Cliburn, hosted in Fort Worth every four years, started with 30 competitors from countries including the U.S., South Korea, Ukraine, Canada, Japan, China, Russia and Belarus. Those 30 were selected from 388 applicants from across 51 countries.

The competition was narrowed down in the final week to just six: Lim, Geniushene, Choni, American Clayton Stephenson, Belarusian Uladzislau Khandohi and Russian Ilya Shmukler.

The silver and bronze medalists will receive cash prizes of $50,000 and $25,000 as well as three years of career management. The remaining three finalists will receive cash awards of $10,000 each.

The 2022 competition started on June 2 and ended Saturday with the final performances and announcement of the medalists. The 16th iteration of the competition was originally scheduled for last year but was postponed to this month due to the pandemic.

The Cliburn 2022 webcast broke previous streaming records with a global online audience of over 9 million people following the competition from more than 170 countries.

A spectator watches the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition finals on a livestream in Sundance Square on Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Fort Worth, Texas.
A spectator watches the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition finals on a livestream in Sundance Square on Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Fort Worth, Texas. Madeleine Cook mcook@star-telegram.com
Jenny and Mike Keena, of Fort Worth, read the schedule for the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition finals, livestreamed in Sundance Square on Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Fort Worth, Texas.
Jenny and Mike Keena, of Fort Worth, read the schedule for the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition finals, livestreamed in Sundance Square on Saturday, June 18, 2022, in Fort Worth, Texas. Madeleine Cook mcook@star-telegram.com

To show the Cliburn’s solidarity with the Ukrainian people, Kyiv-born 2013 Cliburn Gold Medalist Vadym Kholodenko performed the Ukrainian National Anthem at Saturday’s Awards Ceremony.

Of the six finalists, four hailed from areas intimate with the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Two are from Russia, one is from Belarus — which has supported the invasion — and one is from Kyiv, Ukraine.

Choni, Shmukler and Geniushene all said Thursday that they were trying to separate the music from the struggles of their home countries.

Anna Geniushene from Russia performs Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, op. 15 for the finals of the 16th Cliburn International Piano Competition in Bass Performance Hall.
Anna Geniushene from Russia performs Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, op. 15 for the finals of the 16th Cliburn International Piano Competition in Bass Performance Hall. Ralph Lauer/The Cliburn

On March 3, one week after the invasion, the Cliburn organization decried the war but announced it would welcome Russian competitors.

“The Russian-born pianists who have applied for the Sixteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition are not officials for their government nor is their participation in the Cliburn state-sponsored,” the organization said.

Russian athletic teams have been banned from competitions like Wimbledon, but this is different from a sporting event, said Geniushene.

“Being in the competition and representing different countries is kind of an old-fashioned thing,” she said. “We are not athletes. We are not sponsored by the government. We are self-employed musicians.”

Still, as the pool of competitors narrowed, participants — especially those from the region — have been pressed to reflect on the war.

In an interview earlier this month, Shmukler said the Ukrainian war weighs heavily on him as a Russian.

“The key words for me,” he said, “are shame and responsibility.”

The sole Ukrainian finalist, Choni, said he felt additional pressure, but was focused on the music.

Dmytro Choni from Ukraine performs Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, op. 26 in the finals of the 16th Cliburn International Piano Competition in Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas.
Dmytro Choni from Ukraine performs Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, op. 26 in the finals of the 16th Cliburn International Piano Competition in Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas. Ralph Lauer/The Cliburn

On Thursday, he was asked if his decision to play a concerto by Prokofiev in the final round was symbolic. Prokofiev, though a product of the Russian Empire, was born in present day Donetsk Oblast, a region in eastern Ukraine that Russia invaded in 2014. It’s still the site of heavy fighting.

Choni did not comment.

During the final week of performances, the finalists were briefly made available to media, but of the four connected to countries involved in the war, only Geniushene agreed to take questions about the fraught political context of this year’s Cliburn competition.

Two days before the final performances, the competitors’ focus was on the music. The medalists were announced at 7 p.m. Saturday after the last performances at Bass Hall.

“I’m not thinking about my reputation,” said Choni, the finalist from Ukraine. “I just try to be sincere with the audience in my music and just be myself and share my vision of this music.”

Even Geniushene, the most outspoken of the quartet, corrected a New York Times report claiming she was thinking about the war when performing Brahms in the quarterfinals.

Rather, she made her statement of support by wearing Ukrainian embroidery that day.

“I was actually concentrating on my main subject, the music, of course, itself,” she said.

With this year’s array of finalists and this moment’s geopolitical conflict, it’s tempting to make the 2022 Van Cliburn Competition about politics instead of piano.

But, as the finalists know best, artistry, not political might or public perception, dictate the results.

This story was originally published June 18, 2022, 7:51 PM.

James Hartley is a breaking news reporter with awards including features, breaking news and deadline writing. A North Texas native, he joined the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 2019. He has a passion for true stories, understated movies, good tea and scotch that’s out of his budget.
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