Ushida, who turned 26 on the day, studies under Polish pianist Piotr Paleczny at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Last year, he won the Audience Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in Britain.
The remaining six contestants were Zitong Wang and Yifan Wu of China, Kevin Chen of Canada, Americans William Yang and Eric Lu, and Poland’s Piotr Alexewicz.
Each performer plays a 45- to 55-minute recital, including a complete cycle of Mazurkas selected from Opp. 17, 24, 30, 33, 41, 50, 56 or 59; either the Sonata in B-flat minor, Op. 35—best known for its Funeral March—or the Sonata in B minor, Op. 58, often described as the essence of Romantic piano music; and other solo works by Chopin.
Alexewicz, 25, is a graduate of the Academy of Music in Wrocław, southwestern Poland. He developed his skills at the Hochschule der Künste in Zurich, Switzerland. His recent achievements include top prizes at the Texas Piano Concerto Competition and the Schenk Competition in Switzerland in 2024, and second prize at the 2025 Hilton Head Piano Competition in the United States.
He was also a semifinalist at this year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas.
Piotr Alexewicz. Photo: Wojciech Olkuśnik/PAP
Alexewicz has performed at many prestigious venues, including the Berlin Philharmonie, Salle Cortot in Paris, Sala São Paulo, the National Forum of Music in Wrocław, the Warsaw Philharmonic, and Symphony Hall in Osaka.
He has recorded two albums for Poland’s Fryderyk Chopin Institute—one featuring works by Chopin, Liszt, Ravel and Beethoven, and another containing Chopin compositions for piano and orchestra with Sinfonia Varsovia under Howard Shelley.
As a child, Alexewicz sang for six years with the boys’ choir of the National Forum of Music in Wrocław and once dreamed of becoming a conductor.
Asked about his non-musical passions, he said: “I passionately love flying. We musicians fly a lot, and being on a plane gives me great joy.”
Eric Lu, who won fourth prize in Warsaw in 2015, had been scheduled to perform on Wednesday but his recital was postponed due to health reasons.
He is among several pianists returning to the competition this year, a group that also includes Poland’s Alexewicz and Piotr Pawlak, Japan’s Ushida and Miyu Shindo, South Korea’s Hyuk Lee—a finalist in the 2021 contest—and Canada’s Kevin Chen.
The names of the finalists are expected to be announced late on Thursday.
(mk/gs)