Twenty three-year-old Miyu Shindo from Japan is trying her luck for the second time at the Warsaw event, having advanced to the semi-finals four years ago. She is currently a student of Arie Vardi at the Higher School of Music, Theatre and the Media in Hanover, Germany. She has won the top award at the Chopin International Competition in Asia.
China’s Zitong Wang, 26, made her public debut at the Forbidden City Hall in Beijing at the age of 13. Her successes include the highest accolades in the Rosalyn Tureck Bach Competition in New York (2010), at Princeton (2020) and in Ferrol, Spain (2022).
American contestant William Yang, 24, studies with Robert McDonald at the Julliard School in New York. Earlier this year, he won the National Chopin Competition in Miami, also receiving the special prizes for the best interpretation of a mazurka and a sonata.
Twenty five-year-old Piotr Alexewicz, the only Pole among the eleven finalists, belongs to quite a sizeable group of pianists who are making a comeback to the event. In the previous competition, in 2021, he was among the semi-finalists.
Alexewicz is a graduate of the Academy of Music in Wrocław, south-western Poland. His successes include the top awards at the Texas Piano Concerto Competition and the Schenk Competition in Switzerland in 2024. This year he was a semi-finalist at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas.
All finalists perform the Polonaise-Fantasy Op. 61 and one of Chopin’s two Piano Concertos: in E minor Op.11 or in F minor Op.21. In the latter work, the contestants are accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic under Andrzej Boreyko. Of the four contestants appearing on Sunday, Shindo and Wang have selected the E minor Concerto, while Yang and Alexewicz – the F minor.
The prize-winners of the 19th International Chopin Competition will be revealed on Monday, the last day of the finals.
(mk)