YUNCHAN LIM ANNOUNCED AS GOLD MEDALIST FOR 16th VAN CLIBURN INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITION.
Jun 19, 2022

At 18 years of age, the South Korean pianist is the youngest ever winner of the gold medal.

Silver medal awarded to Russian pianist Anna Geniushene.
Bronze medal awarded to Ukrainian pianist Dmytro Choni.

Commenting on his win Jury Chair Marin Alsop said, “It has been inspiring to witness a talent of Yunchan’s magnitude. All finalists showed exceptional musicality and artistry, yet Yunchan stood out among them. Throughout these last three weeks, but particularly his spectacular performance of Rachmaninov’s third piano concerto showed that even at the age of 18 he already exhibits exceptional depth and dazzling technique. I look forward to seeing him develop in the years to come and our future collaborations.”
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South Korean takes first in ‘Olympics of Piano,’ finals of Cliburn competition in Fort Worth BY JAMES HARTLEY AND JESS HARDIN UPDATED JUNE 20, 2022 8:30 AM

A day after receiving the largest standing ovation at the Cliburn since Olga Kern’s Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3 in 2001 (and one of the longest standing ovations in Cliburn history), Yunchan Lim, 18, from South Korea, has been crowned the winner of the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth. He is the youngest ever winner of the gold medal. The silver medal was awarded to Russian pianist Anna Geniushene, 31, and the bronze medal was awarded to Ukrainian pianist Dmytro Choni, 28. Lim’s winning performance was Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, op. 37 and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op. 30. He was also awarded the audience choice award and the jury discretion award for best performance of a new work.

Lim, who will receive a $100,000 award along with his title of champion, started his piano competition career at 14. He also will receive three years of individualized career management, including U.S. and international concert tours, and record a studio album, according to a Cliburn news release.

Lim said he will have to wait until he returns to Korea to decide what to do with everything included in the first-place award. “I am still a student and I feel like I have to learn a lot still,” Lim said. “This is a great competition and I feel the burden of receiving this great honor and award so I will just push myself to live up to the honor I received today.” He’ll discuss with his teacher back in Korea
what the best next moves for his career will be.

Commenting on Lim’s win, Jury Chair and conductor Marin Alsop said, “It has been inspiring to witness a talent of Yunchan’s magnitude. All finalists showed exceptional musicality and artistry, yet Yunchan stood out among them. Throughout these last three weeks, but particularly his spectacular performance of Rachmaninov’s third piano concerto showed that even at the age of 18, he already exhibits exceptional depth and dazzling technique. I look forward to seeing him develop in the years to come and our future collaborations.” Lim placed second at the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists in 2018 and received the Chopin Special Award there. His performances across South Korea include those with the Korean Orchestra Festival, Korea Symphony, Suwon Philharmonic and Busan Philharmonic Orchestras. He also played in Madrid, at the invitation of the Korea Cultural Center in Spain. The Cliburn, hosted in Fort Worth every four years, started with 30 competitors from countries including the U.S., South Korea, Ukraine, Canada, Japan, China, Russia and Belarus. Those 30 were selected from 388 applicants from across 51 countries. The competition was narrowed down in the final week to just six: Lim, Geniushene, Choni, American Clayton Stephenson, Belarusian Uladzislau Khandohi and Russian Ilya Shmukler.

The silver and bronze medalists will receive cash prizes of $50,000 and $25,000 as well as three years of career management. The remaining three finalists will receive cash awards of $10,000 each. The 2022 competition started on June 2 and ended Saturday with the final performances and announcement of the medalists. The 16th iteration of the competition was originally scheduled for last year but was postponed to this month due to the pandemic. The Cliburn 2022
webcast broke previous streaming records with a global online audience of over 9 million people following the competition from more than 170 countries.

To show the Cliburn’s solidarity with the Ukrainian people, Kyiv-born 2013 Cliburn Gold Medalist Vadym Kholodenko performed the Ukrainian National Anthem at Saturday’s Awards Ceremony.

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