Fort Worth June 20 (BUS): An 18-year-old from South Korea has won the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, one of the top performances of the world’s best pianists.
The competition held in Fort Worth, Texas, ended, with Yunshan Lim becoming the youngest gold medal winner in the competition. His earnings include a $100,000 cash prize and three years of professional management, the AP reports.
The silver medalist was 31-year-old Anna Gnyushin from Russia, and the bronze medalist was Dmytro Chunyi, 28, from Ukraine.
Lim told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he would discuss with his mentor what the next step in his career should be.
“I’m still a student and I feel like I still have a lot to learn,” Lim said. “This is an amazing competition and I feel the burden of receiving such a great honor and award, so I will push myself to live up to the honor I received today.”
The competition was established in 1962 in honor of the famous pianist Van Cleburne, who lived in Fort Worth. Clyburn, who died in 2013 at the age of 78, has played for US presidents, royals and heads of state around the world. He is best remembered for winning the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958, at the height of the Cold War.
The competition is traditionally held every four years. This year’s competition was originally scheduled to take place last year but has been postponed due to the pandemic.