Aristo Sham performs with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and conductor Marin Alsop at the 2025 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. All six finalists performed concertos with Alsop and the Fort Worth Symphony.
In Saturday’s (6/7) Dallas Morning News, Scott Cantrell writes, “At a Saturday evening awards ceremony, prize winners in the 2025 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition were announced from the stage of [Fort Worth’s] Bass Performance Hall. The ceremony followed four final round concerts in which each of six finalists played two piano concertos with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, led by guest conductor Marin Alsop. The prize winners: $100,000 Gold Medal: Aristo Sham, Hong Kong, China; $50,000 Silver Medal: Vitaly Starikov, Israel/Russia; $25,000 Bronze Medal: Evren Ozel, United States; Award for the Best Performance of a New Work: Yangrui Cai, China; Award for Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto: Evren Ozel, United States; Jury Chairman Discretionary Award: Mikhail Kambarov, Russia; Jury Discretionary Awards: Jonas Aumiller, Germany; Alice Burla, Canada; Audience Award: Aristo Sham, Hong Kong, China. The top three prizes also include three years of career management, tours, recordings, press kits, videos and websites. In addition to cash prizes for all the specific awards, there are cash awards to each of the competition’s preliminary, quarterfinal, semifinal and final round pianists…. Inaugurated in 1962 and held every four years in Fort Worth, the Cliburn is one of the world’s highest-visibility classical music contests.”
