POLAND: Russia's Yulianna Avdeeva wins the 2010 International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition held every five years in the Polish capital

Record ID: 543718

  • Title: POLAND: Russia's Yulianna Avdeeva wins the 2010 International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition held every five years in the Polish capital
  • Date: 23rd October 2010
  • Summary: WARSAW, POLAND (OCTOBER 20, 2010) (REUTERS ACCESS ALL) VARIOUS OF CROWD AND JOURNALISTS AWAITING ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNER JUDGES AND INTRODUCTION OF WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT CAMERAMAN (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR OF POLAND'S GRAND THEATRE AND NATIONAL OPERA , WALDEMAR DABROWSKI, SAYING: "Ladies and gentlemen, the winner is Yulianna Avdeeva, Russia. Bravo!" CROWD CLAPPING AND CAMERAMEN AND PHOTOGRAPHERS HUDDLED AROUND COMPETITORS (SOUNDBITE) (English) WINNER OF 16TH CHOPIN COMPETITION, YULIANNA ADEEVA, SAYING: "Good question. I still can not believe that this is really happening but I'm very happy, I'm very excited and. It's difficult to describe it in words but I am very, very happy to be here and that this all is happening, it's so amazing so." (SOUNDBITE) (English) WINNER OF 16TH CHOPIN COMPETITION, YULIANNA ADEEVA, SAYING: "There are some pieces which I played before already and there were some pieces which I learnt especially for the competition. But for me I was enjoying, as I said I was enjoying every performance because I was not thinking about the competition. I thought about the music only." VARIOUS OF OFFICIAL TEARING OFF FLIP CHART PAGE SHOWING THE JUDGES SCORING SYSTEM AND COMPETITORS NAMES EMPTY TABLE WHERE JUDGES HAD JUST MADE THE DECISION OF WHERE THE WINNERS WHERE RANKED WORLD FAMOUS PIANIST AND JUDGE, KEVIN KENNER, SAYING: "We used the points system, at least I used my points system to help me determine and remember all the performances throughout this competition. And I am very certain that obviously the majority of the jury felt that Miss Avdeeva was the person that represented the highest quality performances consistently throughout this competition." WORLD FAMOUS PIANIST AND JUDGE, KEVIN KENNER, SAYING: "The points as we looked at them, because we saw points without seeing names, were quite alot of people who were up in the top areas and I think that is one reason why it ended up being an ex aequo (on equal footing) for the second prize and also the third prize as well instead of going to fourth. There was some really excellent playing throughout this competition. Alot of people only heard the final round but of course we were there from the beginning and there was some marvellous performances from all these people. That's why they were in the finals and so I really feel that we've done the work that we needed to do and I suspect that quite a few of these winners will go onto major careers" WARSAW, POLAND (OCTOBER 18, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LEAVING NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 7th November 2010 12:00
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  • Location: Poland
  • Country: Poland
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVAEW50P0HFZOH7B9FTYRRDEYY94
  • Story Text: Russia's Yulianna Avdeeva won the prestigious 2010 International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition on Wednesday after a three-week musical marathon followed avidly by classical music lovers around the globe.
    The competition, the oldest of its kind in the world, is held every five years in the Polish capital and has built up an especially enthusiastic following in Asia.
    A jury that included several world-famous pianists such as Martha Argerich and Kevin Kenner chose Avdeeva, 25, from among 10 finalists after lengthy late-night deliberations at the end of a competition marked by the high quality of its performances.
    Once the judges had finished the closed debate, which decided who the winners were, they descended the National Philharmonic's staircase to a waiting crowd of hundreds and the Director of Poland's Grand Theatre and National Opera, Waldemar Dabrowski announced who the winner was, "Ladies and gentlemen, the winner is Yulianna Avdeeva, Russia. Bravo!".
    The announcement was met with a certain amount of surprise but was a popular choice.
    Ingolf Wunder of Austria and Lukas Geniusas of Russia/Lithuania won joint second place, Russia's Daniil Trifonov came third and Bulgaria's Evgeni Bozhanov fourth.
    Just after Avdeeva had received the news of her victory she was asked by Reuters how she was feeling to which her response was, "Good question. I still can not believe that this is really happening but I'm very happy, I'm very excited and. It's difficult to describe it in words but I am very, very happy to be here and that this all is happening, it's so amazing so.".
    She went onto describe how familiar she was with each of the pieces that she had played and how her focus on simply enjoying each of her recitals had lead to her style of play, "There are some pieces which I played before already and there were some pieces which I learnt especially for the competition. But for me I was enjoying, as I said I was enjoying every performance because I was not thinking about the competition. I thought about the music only." Avdeeva reflected.
    Avdeeva, whose expressive and mature performance of Chopin's Concerto in E minor drew a standing ovation on Tuesday evening, studied in Moscow and is now working as an assistant to a Russian professor at the Hochschule fuer Musik und Theater in Zurich, Switzerland.
    Avdeeva has performed in more than 20 countries including the United States and Japan and has won a number of prizes.
    This year's 16th Chopin competition attracted especially strong interest because it coincided with the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth, to a Polish mother and French father in a village near Warsaw in 1810.
    There were some 3,000 events including concerts dedicated to Chopin's bicentenary worldwide in the first half of 2010 alone.
    Of the 81 original finalists in this year's Chopin Competition, selected after preliminary auditions in the spring, 16 were from Japan and 13 from China, highlighting Asia's increasing clout in the field of Western classical music.
    However, no Asians were among the final 10 frontrunners playing before the 13-member jury in Warsaw's National Philharmonic this week.
    The world renowned pianist Kevin Kenner, who was amongst the jury, explained how he and his fellow judges had selected the winner from the finalists, "We used the points system, at least I used my points system to help me determine and remember all the performances throughout this competition. And I am very certain that obviously the majority of the jury felt that Miss Avdeeva was the person that represented the highest quality performances consistently throughout this competition."
    When asked about the quality of those involved in the competition and what the winners could expect for their future careers Kenner explained how close the high quality competition had been, "The points as we looked at them, because we saw points without seeing names, were quite a lot of people who were up in the top areas and I think that is one reason why it ended up being an exact quote (? he means draw) for the second prize and also the third prize as well instead of going to fourth. There was some really excellent playing throughout this competition. A lot of people only heard the final round but of course we were there from the beginning and there was some marvellous performances from all these people. That's why they were in the finals and so I really feel that we've done the work that we needed to do and I suspect that quite a few of these winners will go onto major careers." he said.
    Chopin left Poland at the age of 20 and spent most of his adult life in Paris but he remained a staunch patriot and his work is suffused with nostalgia for his homeland, at that time partitioned between Russia, Austria-Hungary and Prussia.
    In exile, he counted fellow composers Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz and artist Eugene Delacroix among his friends. He had a turbulent love affair with the female novelist George Sand.
    Dogged by poor health, he died in 1849 aged just 39.
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