1/26/2024 0 Comments Young piano prodigyVictoria Young takes her seat at a modest upright Sohmer piano in the small Green Valley rental condominium she and her mother call home. Victoria's mother, BeeLee, right, works as a substitute teacher to allow for thrice monthly trips to Chicago for the lessons. In 2019, he took home the win at the e-Piano Junior Competition, an international event held in Minneapolis for classical pianists aged 17 and under.Victoria Young, left, takes piano lessons from a longtime member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra known for grooming professional pianists. The CBC named him among the “Top 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30” in 2013 when he was 10. That was when he was awarded a top prize at the Canadian Music Competition in the seven-year-old category. Then you have this talent, on the other hand, that is world-class and he can stand in front of the greatest conductors and musicians of the world at the age of 17.”Ĭhen has been winning competitions and earning attention since he was seven years old. “When you chat with him, you see somebody who appreciates anything and everything someone will do for him. You would have to make sure his father was always with him because he was underage and that we got him to bed early because he had school the next day. He would show up at rehearsals and suddenly you realized you were in the room with talent at a very high level. But he was an extremely talented professional. “You’d never hear more than five words at a time. “He’s very humble, very quiet, very shy,” Grand-Maitre says. He said he recognized Chen’s astounding talents immediately when they worked together on the Memory Room. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The win in Geneva will again move Chen up the ranks in the classical music world, granting him mentorship and international concert opportunities, Grand-Maitre said. I am rapt by his performances: Crying, laughing and shaking my head in awe. “ He allows us to witness the inconceivable in a most genuine way. “Kevin processes an innate understanding … a pure, uncontrived connection to the source,” lang said. lang was already a fan, having seen Chen perform with the Calgary Philharmonic. Grand-Maitre said he has made a point of making Chen an informal “retirement project” by introducing him to lang and musicians and others in the classical-music world in Montreal. The week before Chen left for Switzerland, he gave a private performance at the home of his teacher, University of Calgary professor Marilyn Engle, for a small audience that included Grand-Maitre and Calgary-based superstar kd lang. Last year, he became the youngest musician in history to win the prestigious Frank Liszt International Competition. He’ll take home around CHF 42,000 (C$56,830).Ĭhen’s victory is another addition to the prodigy’s already noteworthy career. The final showdown took place in Geneva, Switzerland.Ĭhen wasn’t only the first-prize winner: he also took home the Young Audience Prize, the Rose-Marie Huguenin Prize, the Fondation Etrillard Prize, the Concerts de Jussy Prize, the Socété des Arts Prize and the Steinway Prizewinner Concerts prize. The 40 pianists were then cut down to nine semi-finalists, and then four finalists. This year’s edition of the Councours de Genève initially featured 182 candidates, which was cut down to 40 pianists aged 16 to 29 from 14 countries by a jury. “We were in tears after every round he played,” said Jean Grand-Maitre, the former artistic director of Alberta Ballet who enlisted Chen to play piano as part of his final piece for the company, The Memory Room, in May as part of the High Performance Rodeo at the GRAND. The next issue of Calgary Herald Headline News will soon be in your inbox. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
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