IV. New York Franz Liszt International Piano Competition Grand Final

Song Hyeon Kim

With his excellent musical understanding and solid organization, Song-Hyeon Kim won second place at the 2023 Isang Yun Competition, as well as the Seong-Yawng Park Special Prize, which is awarded to the most talented young Korean participant. In addition, he received 'UNESCO Creative City of Music Special Award', which is the audience award, thereby winning three categories simultaneously, and it announced the emergence of the next generation of pianists. Prior to this, at the 12th Shinhan Music Awards, the judges unanimously gave him the grand prize in the piano category, where he received favorable reviews. Praises included, “A performer with a classic and elegant interpretation,” “Kim elicits exquisite internal and external expression without exaggeration or overly emotional,” and “Kim contains rich imagination and musicality with full of expressiveness, talent, and above all, passion and love for music". He has won prizes at the Chicago International Music Competition, Sendai International Music Competition, Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, Ishikawa Music Awards, and is building an active international career, including as a finalist at the 64th Ferruccio Busoni Competition. Since his debut at the Kumho Prodigy Concert at the age of 13, he has given recitals at Yamaha Rising Star Recital, Myeong dong Cathedral Korean Young Pianist Series, Shinyoung Chamber Hall TheClass Series, and Samsung Electronics Talent Development Center Concert.

He performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, Busan Philharmonic Orchestra, Eurasian Philharmonic Orchestra, etc. He has also shown a deep interest in chamber music, and in 2018, he appeared on stage at Alice Tully Hall at the invitation of the Chamber Music Society of New York's Lincoln Center. In January 2023, he performed with the Borromeo String Quartet, one of America’s leading string quartets.

After graduating from Yewon School, he moved to the U.S. while attending Seoul Arts High School. He currently studies at the New England Conservatory as a full scholarship student. His teachers have included Hae-Sun Paik, Soo Jung Shin, Dang Tai Son, and Marc-André Hamelin.

Dmitry Yudin

Dmitriy Yudin was born in Moscow in 2001. He learned music at the Gnessin Moscow Secondary Special Music School (College) in the class of Lidia Grigorieva, Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation. Since 2019, he is a student at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City in the class of tutor Horacio Gutiérrez.

He won in competitions: 2017 Laureate of the 2nd Moscow International Vladimir Krainev Piano Competition 2018 The 2nd Prize (Silver medal) in the 17th Youth Delphic Games of Russia in Vladivostok. 2024 The 2nd Prize in the International Piano Competition Géza Anda (Zurich) He took part in master classes by Dmitry Bashkirov, Evgeny Korolev, Viktor Derevyanko, Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Mndoyants, Boris Bloch.

He is a fellow of the Vladimir Spivakov Charity Foundation (since 2014), the Government of Moscow (2014-2016). He is a laureate of the Moscow Mayor's Art Grant Program (2016). Dmitriy has a busy concert schedule. He has performed in the Chamber Hall of the Moscow Philharmonic, the Rachmaninoff Hall of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, the Mikhail Glinka Museum of Musical Culture. He toured Europe, gave solo recitals in Lithuania and the USA.

He has performed with the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra, the State Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Rimsky-Korsakov Music Academy Orchestra, the Saratov StateConservatory Orchestra and the Tomsk Academic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Granovsky.

He has participated in the Russian-Polish Festival “Youth Academy of Music”, the Moscow International Heinrich Neuhaus Festival of Young Pianists, The Christmas Festival of Vladimir Spivakov Charity Foundation in Lithuania.

He takes part in the programs of the St. Petersburg Music House since 2018.

Yongqiu Liu

Chinese pianist Yongqiu Liu has been praised by conductor Benjamin Zander as “an amazing pianist, playing with such flair, spirit and terrific authority.” Born in Chongqing City, Liu received her early musical education at the Shanghai Conservatory Middle School under Ting Zhou and Zhe Tang. She made her solo recital debut at age 13 in China’s Consulate General of Poland and concerto debut with the Novosibirsk National Symphony Orchestra (Russia) at age 15. Yongqiu has won the First Prize at Asian Piano Open Competition and Second Prize at Chopin International Youth Piano Competition (Poland), USASU Bosendorfer Competition (U.S.), and International Jeunessess Music Competition (Serbia). She is also a laureate of the 2018 Malta Piano Competition, Tchaikovsky International Music Youth Competition, EPTA Stanislav Stancic International Piano Competition, New York Festival Concerto Competition, Taiwan Maestro Piano Festival Competition, and Bellagrand International Piano Competition. Yongqiu has performed at the New York Steinway Concert Hall, Boston Symphony Orchestra Hall, London’s BriYen, Hamburg’s Mendelssohn Hall, Shanghai Grand Concert Hall, Shanghai Oriental Art Concert Hall, Ningbo Grand Concert Hall, Changzhou Grand Theatre, and Chongqing Grand Theatre, and a soloist with the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, Serbia National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Armenia Symphony Orchestra, Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, Sichuan Conservatory Orchestra, among others. Liu has also performed at the Rome International Music Festival, “Spring of Shanghai” Music Festival, Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival, Gijon International Piano Festival, “Art Of The Piano” Festival (US), Trentino Music Festival, ClaviCologne Music Festival, BAMA International Music Festival, and the Beijing International Music Festival & Academy. Completing studies at the New England Conservatory of Music under Wha Kyung Byun and Alexander Korsantia, Liu is currently pursuing her

Masters at Yale School of Music under Boris Slutsky and Boris Berman.

Xuanxiang Wu

Xuanxiang Wu, 17 years old, he was admitted to the Music Middle School Affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2016 and studied with Prof. Ting Zhong. Since September 2021, he has been studying at the Juilliard Pre-College as a student of Prof. Ernest Barretta. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, the St. Petersburg State Capella Concert Hall, America’s National Opera Center, the Shanghai Oriental Art Center, and other prestigious venues. He has performed with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York International Youth Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the New York Session Symphony, and the Moscow State Academic Symphony Orchestra.

He won the Overall Winner in Philadelphia International Music Festival Winter Concerto Competition and has been interviewed by CBS News, New York FOX 5 news, the Queens Ledger and the World Daily. He also won the First Prize and the Classical Prize in the Young Artist Group at the Canada International Piano Competition, the top prize at the St. Petersburg International Music Competition, the GOCAA International Piano Competition, the 3rd Lang Lang Shenzhen Futian International Piano Festival, and the New York International Music Competition.

Since May 2023, he has been in artistic collaboration with Italian composer Lorenzo Pescini.

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