The First Prize of the 76th Concours de Genève was awarded to Canadian pianist Kevin Chen, after the Piano Final took place last night (3 November) at Victoria Hall, Geneva. Sergey Belyavsky (28 years old, Russia) ) won Second Prize. The joint Third Prize was awarded to Kaoruko Igarashi (27 years old, Japan) and Zijian Wei (23 years old, China). Winner of the Audience Prize – voted for by attendees of the Finals concert – was Sergey Belyavsky.
The finalists (pictured below) performed at Victoria Hall on 3 November with the Orchester de la Suisse Romande conducted by Maržena Diakun.
Kevin Chen lives and studies in Calgary, Canada, where he is taught by Marilyn Engle. Despite his young age, he has already made a name for himself in many international competitions and notably won the 1st First Prize at the Liszt Competition in Budapest, the 1st Prize at the Mozart Competition in Lugano (junior section) and the 1st Prize at the Washington Hilton Head Competition. He has already performed with the Calgary, Edmonton and Minneapolis symphony orchestras among others. Kevin Chen is also a composer, with nearly 100 works to his credit, including symphonies and a piano concerto. In 2013, he wrote the River Rhapsody in tribute to the victims of the High River floods.
Shin Kim, a student at the Korea University of the Arts in Seoul, where he is completing a master’s degree with Byungmoo Lee, won the Concours de Genève Composition Prize earlier in the week. Shin, (27 years old, from South Korea) scooped the top prize for his work “The Song of Oneiroi”, for six voices and microphones. Yuki Nakahashi (26 years, from Japan) took Second Prize for “Settings”, for vocal ensemble. Third Prize was awarded to Ármin Cservenák (26, from Hungary) for his work “Madrigali”, for six voices, with texts by Pétrarque, Michel-Ange and Scelsi.
The Piano Final was broadcast live on Espace 2 and live streamed on the Concours de Genève website and social media, as well as on medici.tv and amadeus.tv. You can watch the stream on playback via the Concours de Genève YouTube channel.
We’ll have an extensive feature on the Concours de Genève in the November issue of International Arts Manager.