Korean pianist wins Sydney
NewsAnother Seoul talent is coming through.
Jeonghwan Kim, 23, has won the 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition, with a $50,000 cash prize, two commercial recordings, a Wigmore Hall debut and a tour of Australia.
Artistic Director Piers Lane said: ‘ In Jeonghwan Kim, we have a very complete pianist and artist – quite extraordinary for a young man who turned 23 during the Competition. His virtuosity is astounding, his accuracy in the most complex passages breathtaking. But his The Poet Speaks from Schumann’s Scenes of Childhood brought tears to my eyes. He’s got it all.’
I hate to say this ‘aloud’, but as a longtime presenter of classical music in the West, all of these supernova virtuosi from Asia have a real issue in the western world: name recognition. LangLang is easy to pronounce and remember. Midori long ago dropped her surname for western consumers. Yuja Wang is easy to remember (also visually, which she curates brilliantly). But all of the stupendous new talent winning competitions right and left will need to distinguish themselves somehow. A new stage name for the west? A “gimmick” that helps audiences remember who they are and how they play? We’re living in a new golden age of classical music performance greatness, much of it thanks to artists from Asia. I worry their meteors will burn out too early if they all become “that other Asian pianist/violinist/cellist”.
I see no reason to fear that they will become “that other Asian” except someone making a point of calling them so, instead of, say, Jeonghwan Kim.
Asian piano players are piano players like European piano players are piano players; their need for gimmicks or sex appeal should be equally small or big, I would imagine. I ask for neither.
Sorry to say that is basically a racist comment. How come it was easy enough to get to know Kyung-wha Chung, Mitsuko Uchida, Fou Ts’ong and a host of other major international Asian musicians? Did their meteors burn out because they had ‘different’ sounding names and did not have a “gimmick”? Of course not! In any case are those names really that much more difficult than Sergio Celebidache, Leif Ove Andsnes or Maria Joao Pires?
I could not agree more.. I have heard some marvelous Asian players over the last year, but don’t ask me their names, except for Lang Lang and YoYO Ma.To avoid confusion, the telephone customer service reps now identify themselves as “Sheila” ,”Michael” or some other obviously fabricated western name on the phone instead of their Asian names.
can yopu really pronounce the names of all these new Finnish conductors?
How about “Jay Kay”?
Chew on that, Kim Jung Un!!!
“Another SEOUL talent…”
Another HOORAY for democratic SOUTH Korea!!!
Jump to 38:00 for him playing the Bartok.
https://youtu.be/eQDJ0j2FGxI
(and explore SIPC incl all four finals on Piano Plus link)