Monday (6/8) on the website for North Texas radio and television news provider KERA, Bill Zeeble reports, “A young, blind pianist from Japan and a newly-turned 19 year-old from China both claimed gold medals in the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. A South Korean woman took the silver medal in the prestigious competition that ended Sunday night. KERA’s Bill Zeeble has more on the competition, held every 4 years in Fort Worth. … The announcement held great tension, especially because—for the 2nd time this decade, judges broke from the expected routine,” by choosing two first-place winners. “23 year old South Korean Yeol Eum Son was named the 2nd place silver medalist. Then Haochen Zhang, who turned 19 last Wednesday, was named the gold winner. A few seconds later, 20 year old Nobuyuki Tsujii was named co-gold medalist. … Zhang says only if you are humble can you improve yourself and continue to learn. Tsujii and Son made similar comments. All are looking forward to the next 3 years of concerts, the biggest part of their prize.”
Posted June 10, 2009
