Switzerland’s Concours de Genève Announces 2022 Winner

Canadian pianist Kevin Chen, age 17, won the top prize and ₣20,000 at the 76th edition of the international music competition 

The Concours de Genève was founded in 1939 to support emerging artists by providing a platform to pursue an international music career. Annually, the competition selects from the main disciplines of piano, flute, clarinet, cello, viola, string quartet, voice, and percussion. This year, the event also hosted the composition competition — held biennially.

This year’s top piano prizewinner, Kevin Chen, was the only Canadian to go through to the semi-finals — selected out of an initial pool of 40 pianists aged between 16 and 29, representing 14 different countries.

Chen also won over ₣20,000 in special prizes in the competition including the Young Audience, Fondation Etrillard, Concerts De Jussy, Société Des Arts, and Steinway Prizewinner Concerts Prizes.

A recognized child prodigy, Chen made CBC Music’s list of “Top 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians under 30” by the age of eight and gave his orchestral debut with the Abbotsford Youth Orchestra a year later. He has since won numerous awards and appeared with various U.S. orchestras, as well as composed many works for full orchestra, including a piano concerto.

Second place and ₣12,000 went to 28-year-old Russian pianist Sergey Belyavsky, who was joint winner with Chen of the Steinway Prizewinner Concerts award and won over ₣5,000 with the Audience, Students’, and Paderewski Prizes. 

From left to right: Kaoruko Igarashi, Sergey Belyavsky, Kevin Chen, and Zijian Wei (Image courtesy: Concours de Genève)

Joint third place and ₣8,000 went to 18-year-old Japanese pianist Kaoruko Igarashi and 24-year-old pianist Zijian Wei from China. The four finalists performed with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and conductor Maržena Diakun. As laureates, they each received the ₣10,000 Rose-Marie Huguenin Prize. 

Chaired by Janina Fialkowska, the jury comprised Florent Boffard, Josu de Solaun, Till Fellner, Momo Kodama, Marianna Shirinyan, and Gilles Vonsattel.

“Canada is on a roll! Once again a Canadian has won a major international piano competition,” Fialkowska wrote on Facebook. “[Chen] gave us fantastic performances and we Canadians should be very proud. I certainly am. Congratulations also to his teacher Marilyn Engle of the University of Calgary,” she added.

Chen’s prize-winning performance can be watched below.