More history has been made! Vietnam's Khanh Nhi Luong, once of the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, has been admitted to the Finals of the Leeds International Piano Competition 2024!
Her performances of Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op.110, Kate Whitley's Five Piano Pieces and Faure's Violin Sonata No.1 (with Elena Urioste) in the semi-finals were judged to be supremely musical (despite her short playing time), and thus advanced to the Grand Finals on 20 and 21 September 2024.
With the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Domingo Hindoyan, she will perform Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto. Her performance and the rest of the finals at Bradford City Hall may be viewed on YouTube.
Relive Nhi's marvelous semi-final performance here:
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| The finalists (from L): Kai-Min Chang, Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, Junyan Chen, Khanh Nhi Luong & Julian Trevelyan |
The concerto finals schedule as follows:
FRIDAY 20 SEPTEMBER
JULIAN TREVELYAN (UK)
BARTOK Piano Concerto No.3
KAI-MIN CHANG (Taiwan)
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No.4
JUNYAN CHEN (China)
RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No.4
SATURDAY 21 SEPTEMBER
KHANH NHI LUONG (Vietnam)
PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No.3
JAEDEN IZIK-DZURKO (Canada)
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No.2
Wishing Nhi and the finalists all the best for their performances. It's going to be two very exciting evenings.
FUN FACTS:
Although Nhi is the first YST graduate to make the finals of a major international piano competition, it is Singapore's Kahchun Wong who is the first YST alumnus to win a major first prize, at the 2016 Mahler International Conducting Competition. He is now the chief conductor of the Halle Orchestra in Manchester. Might he someday conduct the finals of the Leeds International Piano Competition?
Kai-Min Chang (張凱閔) is not the first person with the surname Chang (張) to make the finals of the Leeds. Chiao-Ying Chang (張巧縈), also from Taiwan, was awarded fifth prize in 2003. Rachel Cheung Wai Ching (張緯晴) of Hong Kong, fifth prize winner in 2009, also qualifies for having the same surname in Chinese. So far, no Zhangs from PRC or elsewhere has made it to a final.
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| Jon Kimura Parker's debut album after winning the Leeds. |
Only one Canadian pianist has won first prize at the Leeds, and that was Jon Kimura Parker in 1984. Jaeden Izik-Dzurko might very well be the next.
There have only been two women awarded first prize at the Leeds in its 61-year history (20 editions). They were Sofya Gulyak (2009) and Anna Tsybuleva (2015), both from Russia. The two women in this year's finals, Khanh Nhi Luong (Vietnam) and Junyan Chen (China) also come from communist nations.
Junyan Chen's performance of Rachmaninov's Fourth Piano Concerto in G minor (Op.40) will be the first time this "Cinderella" concerto is performed at the finals of the Leeds. The usual warhorses, Concertos Nos.2 and 3, had been put down, omitted from this year's repertoire list.
Finalist Julian Trevelyan (UK) was not originally on the list of 24 pianists selected to perform in the second round of the Leeds. He was the first reserve pianist, and was admitted when Nicolas Margarit (Australia) had withdrawn from the competition. He shares the same name as the English artist Julian Trevelyan (1910-1988), who is his great uncle.
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| Now do you see the resemblance? |
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