Sawt Falasteen - 'Dream come true' for US pianist Eric Lu after Chopin competition win

The competition -- held every five years in Frederic Chopin's homeland -- is seen as a gateway to classical music glory, with winners going on to play top global venues and sign recording deals.

"This is a dream come true," Lu, 27, told reporters in Warsaw, thanking "all the Chopin lovers around the world".

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Lu participated in the competition's 2015 edition, finishing fourth.

Pianists vying for the top prize performed in a multi-stage contest to showcase their skills in various musical forms composed by Chopin, including polonaises, sonatas and mazurkas.

It culminated with a final round that saw 11 pianists performing one of two Chopin piano concertos and his Polonaise-Fantaisie, considered notoriously difficult to master.

Previous winners of the competition include some of the biggest names in classical music, including Maurizio Pollini, Martha Argerich and Krystian Zimerman.

American pianist Garrick Ohlsson, who won the top prize in 1970, chaired the jury that selected this year's winner.

"We had a number of very difficult discussions involving our opinions about artistic matters, and it did really take this long", Ohlsson said after the jury's nearly five-hour deliberations.

"But we actually got rid of the roadblocks, and I think we have a fine decision for this year's competition," he added.

- Record interest -

Canada's Kevin Chen, 20, finished second and China's Zitong Wang, 26, came third.

The winner receives a prize of 60,000 euros ($70,000).

Young pianists aged 16 to 30 were eligible to take part in the competition, first held in 1927, and the Warsaw organisers received a record number of more than 600 applications for this year's edition.

Only around a tenth of them made it through a complex qualification process that included playing in a preliminary round in Warsaw.

The last event, held in 2021 after being deferred because of the Covid pandemic, ended with Canadian pianist Bruce Liu scoring the highest accolade.

Broadcast live on YouTube, the contest attracted record online interest and drew music buffs from around the world.

"I came here to just listen to this concert," Kosei Harada, a 21-year-old Japanese student living in Germany told AFP after the competition's final stage and the verdict.

"Actually I wanted the Japanese to take the prize. But I really loved the performance of Eric Lu too. So it's okay for me," Harada said.

Tickets for the competition had sold out within 30 minutes of their release online, with the final round tickets gone in two minutes.

L.AbuAli--SF-PST