Hong Kong pianist, 29-year-old ARISTO SHAM has just been awarded the Gold Medal (1st Prize) at the 2025 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He bested 27 other pianists from around to world to clinch this covetous accolade, the first pianist from Hong Kong to do so.
He also won the Audience Prize, this being a rare occasion when both the competition jury and audience concurred. In 2017, Hong Kong's Rachel Cheung, a non-medaling finalist, also won the hearts of the audience. Both pianists had been students of Eleanor Wong at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.
The Silver Medal was awarded to Vasily Starikov (Israel/USA) and the Bronze Medal to Evren Ozel (USA). The three other finalists were Angel Stanislav Wang (USA), Carter Johnson (USA) and Philipp Lynov (Russia), the last of whom had earlier won 2nd prize winner at this year's Singapore International Piano Competition.
It was not a great surprise why Aristo won. His solid musicianship and sensitivity in a wide range of repertoire over the competition's six gruelling rounds (three recitals and three concertos), not including an earlier audition round, paved the way to ultimate victory. His humility, generous and sincere demeanor, and charismatic dress sense (a Horowitzian bow-tie and check out his socks!) also stood him out as an artist to look up to.
Here to relive Aristo's performances
in the Cliburn 2025:
Interestingly, the last three editions of The Cliburn have been won by Asian pianists. Yunchan Lim and Yekwon Sunwoo, both from South Korea, were the winners in 2022 and 2017 respectively. The last non-Asian pianist to win was Vadym Kholodenko (Ukraine) in 2013. The 2009 edition was dominated by Asians, with Zhang Haochen (China) and Nobuyuki Tsujii (Japan) sharing Gold, and Yeol Eum Son (South Korea) winning Silver. The last pianist from the People's Republic of China to make the grand finals was Fei-Fei Dong in 2013.
Here is Magdalene Ho's very interesting and curiously absorbing Preliminary Round recital. Judge for yourself.
