Seven Koreans to compete in Chopin piano competition in Oct.

Seen is the stage for the 18th Chopin Piano Competition. Courtesy of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute

By Park Ji-won

Poster for 18th Chopin Piano Competition. Courtesy of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute

Seven South Koreans advanced to compete in the 18th Chopin Piano Competition.

The seven are Choi Hyoung-lok, Ka Joo-yeon, Kim Su-yeon, Lee Hyuk, Lee Jae-yoon, Park Jin-hyung and Park Yeon-min. Kim won the top prize at Concours musical international de Montreal this year. The seven Koreans will compete with 80 other pianists in October.

In the finals, they will play works by Polish composer Frederic Chopin in a series of main round competitions to be held from Oct. 3 to 17. Those who are chosen will compete in the final scheduled to be held at the Chamber Hall of the National Philharmonic on Oct. 20. The winner will be given 40,000 euros ($47,114) of prize money, along with the title.

The finalists include 22 Chinese, 16 Poles, 14 Japanese, seven Koreans and six Italians. Armenia, Canada, Taiwan, Cuba, Latvia, Russia, Thailand, the United States, the United Kingdom and Vietnam also each have one finalist who passed the preliminary round.

Launched in 1927, the prestigious piano competition, held every five years, was supposed to be held last year, but was postponed due to the spread of COVID-19. Last time in 2015, the 17th edition of the competition, Korean pianist Cho Seong-jin was declared the winner.

Other previous winners include Maurizio Pollini, Krystian Zimerman, Rafal Blechacz and Martha Argerich. Korean pianists Lim Dong-hyek and Lim Dong-min won the third prize at the 15th International Chopin Piano Competition in 2005.