Li Yundi, the gold medal winner at the 14th Frederic
Chopin International Piano Competition, gave a Chopin concert in
Beijing November 25 evening together with the China National Orchestra.
Chinese Vice Premier Li Lanqing and Minister
of Culture Sun Jiazheng were among the audience at the concert.
Li Yundi, 18, won the gold medal in October,
the first time the event's top prize has been awarded since 1985.
He is the youngest in the world and the first
Chinese to get the top prize.
The Chopin competition, held every five years
since 1927, is devoted entirely to music by the 19th-century Polish
composer. The judging is so tough that in 1990 and 1995 no performances
were deemed good enough for a gold medal.
Li, still a student at Shenzhen Piano Art School,
has won several prizes at the international level. His past honors
include first place at the Gina Bachauer Young Artists International
Piano Competition in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1999, and third place
at the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in the Netherlands.
(People's Daily 11/27/2000)
|