Two Canadians among top five pianists at prestigious Chopin competition

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A Canadian has placed second at the prestigious Chopin international competition, which has been a launchpad for classical music's top concert pianists.

The gold medal for the 17th edition of the Warsaw-based event was awarded on Tuesday to Seong-Jin Cho of South Korea while the second spot was awarded to Charles Richard-Hamelin, 26, from Quebec.

A second Canadian, 16-year-old Yike (Tony) Yang from Toronto, placed fifth.

It was the first time that Canadians had made it to the final round of the competition, which is dedicated solely to the works of 19th-century composer Frédéric Chopin.

Kate Liu of the United States placed third, Eric Lu of the United States came fourth and Dmitry Shishkin of Russia was sixth.

The Chopin competition is held every five years and past winners include Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini and Krystian Zimerman. Even second-prize winners are pianists of high calibre such as Vladimir Ashkenazy or Mitsuko Uchida.

"It has been the most incredible experience in my life," Mr. Richard-Hamelin said before a packed hall as he received his award before Wednesday's gala concert for the prize winners.

in a brief telephone interview from Warsaw, he told the Globe and Mail that his agent, Annick-Patricia Carrière, who was with him in Poland, had immediately been swamped with offers and had been handed more than 50 business cards from impresarios and promoters.

"It's crazy how things changed so quickly," Mr. Richard-Hamelin said.

While thrilled about the honour, he was also exhausted at the end of a competition that began three weeks ago with a field of 78 pianists from 20 countries.

The jury's decision wasn't announced until 1 a.m., he said. He got back to his hotel room, but "of course I couldn't go to sleep right away. My eyes remained wide open."

Mr. Richard-Hamelin was also awarded the Krystian Zimerman prize for best performance of a sonata. He had performed Chopin's Sonata No. 3 during the third round of the competition.

He had studied since he was 5 with Paul Surdulescu, a piano professor in the Lanaudière region near Montreal. After obtaining degrees from McGill University and the Yale School of Music, he was mentored by André Laplante, a former silver medalist at the International Tchaikovsky Competition.

The other Canadian contestant, Mr. Yang, studied at Toronto's Royal Conservatory and the Juilliard School. He is a pupil of Dang Thai Son, a former Chopin competition gold medalist who now lives in Canada.

This year's jury included several former winners of the competition: Ms. Argerich, Mr. Son, Garrick Ohlsson, Adam Harasiewicz and Yundi Li.