Kevin Chen: Laureate of the 19th Chopin Competition

The 19th Chopin Competition has come to a close! The competition began on October 3rd with 84 pianists, and closes with 9 laureates. We are delighted to announce that Kevin Chen, who represented Canada, received the second prize after his outstanding performances throughout the competition.

The laureates of the competition are:

•  1st Prize – Eric Lu (USA)

•  2nd Prize – Kevin Chen (Canada)

•  3rd Prize – Zitong Wang (China)

• 4th Prize (ex-aequo) – Tianyao Lyu (China) Shiori Kuwahara (Japan)

• 5th Prize (ex-aequo) – Piotr Alexewicz (Poland), Vincent Ong (Malaysia)

• 6th Prize – William Yang (USA)

• Polish Radio Award for the best performance of Mazurkas – Yehuda Prokopowicz (Poland)

• Warsaw Philharmonic Award for the best performance of a Concerto – Tianyao Lyu (China)

• Krystian Zimerman Award for the best performance of a Sonata – Zitong Wang (China)

• Fryderyk Chopin Society Award for the best performance of a Polonaise – Tianyou Li (China)

• Bella Davidovich Award for the best performance of a Ballade – Adam Kałduński (Poland) All the laureates and prize winners will perform in Warsaw October 21-23. We will post any livestream links for these concerts as soon as they are available.

Congratulations to all the pianists who participated in the competition!

Kevin joins a number of Canadians who have enjoyed success in the last three International Chopin Competitions: Bruce Liu, JJ Bui, Yony Yike Yang, and Charles Richard Hamelin.

ABOUT KEVIN CHEN

Born on 7 March 2005, Kevin Chen received private instruction from Colleen Athparia, Krzysztof Jabłoński and Marilyn Engle, and currently studies with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hanover. He received the ARCT Diploma from The Royal Conservatory at the unprecedented age of 8. In 2021, at the age of 16 he became the youngest winner of the Franz Liszt International Competition. He was the first Canadian to win the  Concours de Genève in 2022, and won the Artur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv in 2023. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, London’s St John’s Smith Square, and festivals including La Roque-d’Anthéron, Duszniki-Zdrój, ‘Chopin and His Europe’ and the Oxford Piano Festival. Since debuting with the Abbotsford Youth Orchestra, he has regularly performed with ensembles such as the Symphony Orchestras of Edmonton and Taipei, Philharmonic Orchestras of Calgary, Warsaw, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Hungarian National Orchestra.