27-year-old American pianist takes home the top prize, a full decade after placing fourth at the prestigious competition
Eric Lu, winner of the 2025 Chopin International Piano Competition, will meet Korean audiences for the first time since his victory in a special collaboration with the KBS Symphony Orchestra and Grammy-winning conductor Leonard Slatkin. The concert, titled “1905 and the Hope for Tomorrow,” will take place at 8 p.m. on Nov. 21 at Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul.
The Chopin Competition's 17-member jury, on Tuesday, named Lu the winner among 11 finalists. Born in the US to a Taiwanese father and a Chinese mother, Lu, 27, studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and previously won the 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition. Lu will receive 60,000 euros ($69,000) in prize money and a gold medal.
Lu's triumph comes 10 years after he placed fourth at the 2015 Chopin Competition, where Korean pianist Cho Seong-jin won the first prize.
The second prize went to Kevin Chen, 20, from Canada, while Zitong Wang, 26, of China took third. This year’s competition drew a record 642 applicants, with 84 pianists advancing to the main rounds, including 16 prizewinners from major international contests. More than half of the 11 finalists were of Asian descent, and pianists of Chinese heritage captured the top four prizes.
Among the Korean contestants, brothers Lee Hyuk and Lee Hyo, Lee Kwan-uk and Julia Nakashima (a dual citizen of Japan and Korea) reached the main rounds, with the Lee brothers advancing to the third round.
During the KBS Symphony Orchestra's 2024 European tour, the orchestra and Lu performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 at Warsaw’s National Philharmonic Hall -- the very stage where he would later secure his 2025 Chopin victory.
The upcoming concert led by Slatkin will also feature Cindy McTee’s “Circuits” in its Korean premiere and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 “The Year 1905."
Following the Nov. 21 concert, Lu will hold a solo recital at the Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall on Nov. 26.
Meanwhile, Korea’s Mast Media, which has long introduced Chopin Competition winners to Korean audiences, announced on Tuesday that the Mast Media Prize, a newly established special award, was presented to Lu this year as part of the Chopin Institute’s unofficial award program.
The company will also host the Chopin Competition Winners’ Gala Concert in February 2026, featuring Lu, other top laureates and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.
Launched in 1927 to commemorate composer and pianist Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849), the piano competition has been held in Warsaw, Poland, every five years since 1955. Over the decades, the contest in which young pianists aged 16 to 30 showcase their skills exclusively through Chopin's compositions has grown from 27 participants to a record 642 from 54 countries in the 2025 edition.
gypark@heraldcorp.com
