The 19 years old pianist Eric Lu performed the piano concerto No. 3 by Rachmaninov on a C. Bechstein grand piano D 282 together with the Staatkapelle Halle and conductor Josep Caballé Domenech. Lu thrilled the audience, so that he received also the audience award. Fabio Martino – a really marvelous pianist too – performed at the Grand Finale the piano concerto No. 5 “Emperor” by Beethoven.
The 7th International German Piano award was arranged by the International Piano Forum Frankfurt and powered by C. Bechstein. Some one hundred pianists from around the world registered to compete for the award. A nomination jury watched the submitted videos of all participants and nominated six pianists for the final rounds in Frankfurt:
Moye Chen from Bejing, who studied in Shanghai and Illinois.
Zhenni Li – also from China –, who studied at the Juilliard School, the Yale School of Music a.o.
Eric Lu from Boston, Massachusetts, who studies at the moment at the Curtis Institut of Music in Philadelphia and works also with Dang Thai Son.
Fabio Martino from Sao Paulo, who studied in his home country and in Karlsruhe.
Jiayan Sun from Yantai, who studied in Bejing and in New York at the Juilliard School.
Alexander Yakovlev from Rostow, who studied in Rostow, Salzburg and Berlin.
All six nominated pianists had won several competitions and had performed with great orchestras and in famous concert halls before and played at the competition on a very high level. Eric Lu, Fabio Martino, Jiayan Sun and Alexander Yakovlev were selected for the second round, afterwards Lu and Martino for the finals. The international jury with professor Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy, Josep Caballé Domenech, Renchang Fu, professor Rudolf Meister, doctor Dariusz Mikulski, professor Ekaterina Murina, professor Wojciech Rajski, Reinhard Seehafer and Yekwon Sunwoo (Laureat of the 5th International German Piano Award) elected Eric Lu for the International German Piano Award 2017. Congratulations!
