Author: jeremy chan
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Leeds International Piano Competition entry #10: My Top Ten Moments
Terribly sorry for the long due post to conclude my small project of following the Leeds, but I’ve been very busy since the finale of this grand competition, and now I’ve finally got some time to write about it! Firstly, a long due congratulations to the prize winners: Eric Lu, Mario Häring and Xinyuan Wang,…
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Leeds International Piano Competition entry #9: What do you do when your nail comes off halfway through a performance?
So the first night of the Leeds Finals happened last night. I went to bed at 8:30pm and got up at 2 just to watch it, feeling all excited, but frankly, I was a bit disappointed. Hear me out. I don’t think the pianist’s lack of flair or musicality is the only factor when I…
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Leeds International Piano Competition entry #8: The Magic of Eric Lu
I love Eric Lu. I think I first came across Eric when he played in the Chopin Competition around four years back. He got 4th prize, and he was only 17 then. Now, at the age of 20, he has come back to grace the stage in Leeds with his presence, bringing with him his…
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Leeds International Piano Competition entry #7: Aljoša’s fall from grace
I think it’s true when people say that classical musicians are only the medium between composers and their music. Ultimately a pianist doesn’t own the music he plays, even if he composed it himself. I could say that I like Horowitz playing Rachmaninoff rather than Rachmaninoff playing Rachmaninoff. Strangely, this seems to echo with religious…
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Leeds International Piano Competition entry #6: Round 1 Final Post
Group 5 Alexia Mouza (Greece/ Venezuela) Tamila Salimdjanova (Uzbekistan) Yoonji Kim (South Korea) Xinyuan Yang (China) Alexia Mouza, 28 Instead of performing Bach or Scarlatti, Alexia Mouza from Greece made the unorthodox choice of presenting Couperin’s Les roseaux in B minor as her Baroque piece-of-choice. I must confess, I’m not really familiar with the composer. Upon…
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Start of the Second Round and a Word or two
Hi everyone! As I’m writing, the Second Round of the Leeds Piano Competition will be live in around 5 hours! I am really excited about it, especially when the Second Round holds promises for less restricted repertoire that reveals more of the pianist’s personalities, and also more epic works. That being said, performances are also…
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Leeds International Piano Competition entry #5: Goya, Dante and Good Old Bach
Group 4 Andrzej Wiercinski (Poland) Wei-Ting Hsieh (Taiwan) Pavel Zemen (Czechia) Taek Gi Lee (South Korea) Andrzej Wierciński, 22 Joining the by-now well-established tradition of presenting two contrasting sonatas in the First Round, Andrzej Wierciński presented Scarlatti’s Sonata in G Minor, K. 450 and Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7 in B Flat Major, op. 83. I’m…
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Leeds International Piano Competition Entry #4: Mid-week Muse
A blog post I recently read about individualism of musicians really struck a chord within me (pun intended). Written by Hong Kong pianist Stephen Hung–who, coincidentally, shares the same former piano teacher with me–muses on the idea of being “individual” in the world of music. The Chinese word 自我 literally translates into “self-me”, so one…
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Leeds International Piano Competition Entry #3: Round 1 (still)
GROUP 3 Anna Geniushene (Russia) Salih Can Gevrek (Turkey) Yilei Hao (China) Mario Häring (Germany) Anna Geniushene, 27 Your profile picture doesn’t look bad, why do you have to dress like a grandmother? Sorry, that was my first thought when I saw Anna’s concert dress. For her first round, Anna Geniushene presented Clementi’s Sonata…
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Leeds International Piano Competition Entry #2: Round 1
After my first entry on the Leeds Piano Competition, an avid reader of my blog (my dad actually) suggested to me that I should take into account the quality of sound I get from the laptop I use, which is why from now on I vow to refrain from listening to the performances on the…
Literally Left-handed 