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Shortly after winning $61,000
of total prize money and the gold medal, Vadym Kholodenko flashed one of his first smiles of
the competition. The audience gave an ecstatic ovation
when his name was called. Italy's Beatrice Rana won second prize, and she also won
the audience choice award based on voting by more than 24,000
people worldwide. Sean Chen took third place in the competition. At
the press conference following the awards ceremony, Sean said:
"If you had asked me when I was a freshman at Juilliard if I
ever would have medalled in the Cliburn I would have laughed
and left." He said that the experience here has been one of the
best and also one of the most stressful of his life. When
asked how high this moment ranks among his musical accomplishments,
he stretched his hand high in the air and smiled. He also said that
he and gold medalist Vadym Kholodenko were thinking of
celebrating with whiskey.
Kholodenko confirmed the rumor that he wrote
the cadenzas to the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 on the
airplane ride to America just a few weeks ago. In what
may have been the largest understatement of the competition,
he said with a smile that he was "not disappointed" about
winning. He said that competition is "just part of our
life" and not something specific to music. He also noted that he
doesn't think the ranking of the finalists is so important, and
that it might be of more interest to the media and audiences than
the musicians. Asked whether he has any expectations of the next
three years of engagements that he will play as a Cliburn gold
medalist, he smiled and said: "I expect to have concerts
beyond these three years."
On the subject of competition, Beatrice said that she
agrees with Bartok that competition is for horses, not
artists. She added: "I don't feel horse." She also said that
competitions are one of the best ways to have a concert career, and
that after the silver medal, she would not compete anymore. Sean
and Vadym also said that they did not have plans to
compete again in the future.
Blogging for the Cliburn this past week has been a
wonderful experience. I have greatly enjoyed meeting so many
musicians and people involved with the competition and
hearing such wonderful music. Many thanks to the Cliburn,
and best of luck to all the musicians in
the competition!
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