Jeonghwan Kim has been announced as the winner of 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition (The Sydney). Kim takes home a $50,000 cash prize award, as well as concerts, a national tour of Australia, a digital and CD release of his performances during the competition, and further recording engagements. Artistic Director Piers Lane described him as a “very complete pianist and artist”.

The announcement was made following four intense concerts with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House including the electrifying final session held on Saturday 22nd July.

And the Korean-born 23-year-old had the chance to show his considerable wares to Australian audiences in his debut national tour of six cities.

Kim started playing piano at six and moved with his family to Berlin to live at the age of 11. He just turned 23 while the Preliminary rounds were taking place.

Lane was lavish in his praise of the young pianist who topped the field of 32 international up-and-comers. “His virtuosity is astounding, his accuracy in the most complex passages breathtaking. He’s got it all,” he said.

Kim, a Berlin-based competitor who turned 23 during the competition said, “To win first prize is such a rewarding experience, and a motivation to go further and explore more. I was really glad that I was able to connect with the audience, and to share beautiful music during the competition.”

Kim has previously won the Aarhus International Piano Competition and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Conservatory Competition, and has performed with the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin and the Odense Symphony Orchestras. He entered the finals of The Sydney playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22 in E♭ major and Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

Throughout July, 32 contenders from 16 countries competed in The Sydney for a total prize pool of $207,500 in cash prizes.

The preliminary rounds of the competition began on 6 July in the Verbrugghen Hall at Sydney Conservatorium of Music. From 12 July, 12 pianists progressed to the semi-finals, where they were required to play a 70 minute recital as well as partnering in a string sonata. Six of the semi-finalists then performed two major concertos, alongside the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in the Opera House.

The prizes, announced at a ceremony on the evening of 22 July, honoured competitors across all stages of the competition.

“To emerge from such intense tests as the winner [of The Sydney] is an extraordinary achievement,” the chair of The Sydney, former competitor and jury member Piers Lane, reflected. “It implies not only superlative piano playing and musicianship, but stamina and the ability to impress a wide range of discerning listeners while communicating the joys and heartbreaks of music.”

Lane said about Kim’s performance, “He’s got it all. He will be the perfect ambassador for The Sydney”.

Kim will immediately start a national tour of Australia, giving his Winner’s recital across Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, Townsville and Perth. He will also be invited as an artistic director for one edition of Out West Piano Fest, a chance to perform at London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as engagements in New York, Dubai and Portugal.

The Second Prize of The Sydney was awarded to Belarusian pianist Uladzislau Khandohi, with Shanghai Conservatorium student Yungyung Guo receiving the Third Prize. 19-year-old Reuben Tsang, the only Australian pianist who progressed past the first stage of the competition, was awarded The Best Australian Pianist and received a Medal for the Most Promising Competitor.

The People’s Choice Prize, where voters can choose their favourite pianist out of all competitors, was awarded to Juilliard School of music graduate Korkmaz Can Saǧlam. He will also be offered an engagement in the Sydney Festival 2024. Meanwhile current Juilliard masters student Wynona Yinuo Wang was awarded the Board of Directors’ Prize for Excellence and will be offered an opportunity to work with a recording label.

There was certainly plenty of diversity in this triumphal tour with the first half comprising two sonatas that couldn’t be further apart in Beethoven’s affectionately nostalgic and joyful Les Adieux and Prokofiev’s unsettling and uncompromising No. 6 in A Major, the first of his three monumental “war sonatas”.

That Kim could carry this startling contrast off with such aplomb says much for his remarkable maturity and technical ability. His handling of the Beethoven was impressive, but at times one felt that some of his choices, although characterful, perhaps were a little forced and lacking in poetic subtlety.

This was, however, at odds with his reading of Schumann’s 4 Nachtstucke later on which were beautifully and movingly played.

If this reviewer felt that Les Adieux was a fruit picked a little too early, all that youthful energy, strength and vehemence were perfect for Prokofiev’s anguished 1940 work which reflects the precariousness and angst of the war years in the Soviet Union.

Here Kim’s accuracy, dynamic control and sheer stamina were put to the test with thundering bravura passages despatched with flair. The nervy Allegretto was a highlight, a smile on Kim’s lips as the dangerous jerky dance played out.

The slow winding waltz of the third movement built to a satisfying climax before dying away, leading the way for the pyrotechnics and motoric momentum of the finale which Kim managed with seeming ease.

The four Schumann pieces, which opened the second half, sat very nicely under his fingers and in Chopin’s Berceuse there was a neat balance between the gently rocking lilt of the left hand and the delicate filigree of the right, Kim giving it a feeling of Bill Evans-like improvisation.

His easy and open stage manner was demonstrated when he came to the microphone to announce a bonus track in Bartok’s Out of Doors suite of five short pieces. “I may not play the Messiaen (Regard de l’Esprit de joie from Vingts Regards sur L’Enfant-Jesus which was to close the recital), depending on how I feel after the Bartok,” he said with a chuckle.

The whirling and pounding rhythms of Bartok’s The Chase – he had literally banged his fist down on the bass notes for the Drums and Pipes first piece in the set – had the Fazioli grand fizzing and sparkling.

And if that weren’t enough, as an encore to wrap up this thoughtfully programmed and varied recital, Kim gave a joyful and tight account of Chopin’s Scherzo No. 3 in C Sharp Minor.