“Yekwon Sunwoo of South Korea was crowned the gold medal winner of the 15th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition on Saturday night at Bass Hall,” writes Andrea Ahles in Saturday’s (6/10) Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas). “American Kenneth Broberg, 23, received the silver medal and Daniel Hsu, 19, also of the U.S., received the bronze. Sunwoo, 28, is the first South Korean to win the Cliburn…. Sunwoo receives a cash award of $50,000, three years of career management and performance attire from Neiman Marcus…. Hsu received the Steve De Groote Memorial Award for the best chamber music performance and the Beverly Taylor Smith Award for the best performance of a new work, the commissioned piece by juror Marc-Andre Hamelin…. Jury chairman Leonard Slatkin … conducted the final-round concertos…. Rachel Cheung, Yury Favorin and Georgy Tchaidze, finalists who did not place, will each receive a cash award of $10,000. Cheung was also voted audience favorite, receiving an additional $2,500 prize…. During the finals round, which began on Wednesday, each of the six finalists performed a piano quintet with the Brentano String Quartet and then a concerto with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. The competition began on May 25.”
Posted June12, 2017
