Dmytro Choni
Ukraine | Age 28
Dmytro Choni began piano in his native Kyiv when he was 4 years old. After a particularly meaningful performance at the age of 14, which he calls “a turning point,” his lifelong journey of professional musicianship began. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine under the guidance of Yuri Kot, then moved to Austria in 2015 to study with Milana Chernyavska at the Kunstuniversität Graz.
A prizewinner at nearly 20 international piano competitions, he has taken first prize at six: Santander (Spain), Bösendorfer USASU (USA), Los Angeles, ZF-Musikpreis (Germany), Roma (Italy), and Tucumán (Argentina). Dmytro is a laureate of other top competitions, including Leeds, Vendome, Busoni, and Horowitz, and recipient of top young artist prizes at Interlaken Classics (Switzerland) and Piano Academy Eppan (Italy). He now comes to Fort Worth, calling the Cliburn “nothing else but my dream.”
Dmytro has collaborated with renowned orchestras, such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, RTVE Symphony, Seongnam Philharmonic, Ukraine National Symphony, Liechtenstein Symphony, and Dominican Republic National Symphony Orchestras. In addition to regular invitations to perform at prestigious festivals, such as the Kissinger Sommer, Verbier, and Dubrovnik Summer Festivals, he served as artist in residence at the VP Bank Classic Festival in Switzerland and Olive Classic Festival in Croatia. His performances in major halls in Europe, Asia, South America, and the United States (including Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall in January 2022) have made a lasting impression on his musical development.
Dmytro’s debut album was released by Naxos in 2020; it received a “Supersonic Award” from Pizzicato and was highly acclaimed by the international critics, one raving he “could be one of the 21st century’s most outstanding pianists.”
In March, he told the Fort Worth Report that music is “always kind of a hideaway from what’s going on in the world. Through the music, you can try to project the best possible emotion, the optimism, the hope.”
REPERTOIRE
Preliminary Round
HOUGH Fanfare Toccata
SCHUMANN Novelette in F-sharp Minor, op. 21, no. 8
RACHMANINOV Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor, op. 36 (1931)
Quarterfinal Round
PROKOFIEV Sarcasms, op. 17
DEBUSSY “Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut” from Images, book II
DEBUSSY L’isle joyeuse
LISZT Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata
Semifinal Round – recital
BRAHMS Two Rhapsodies, op. 79
SCRIABIN Sonata No. 4 in F-sharp Major, op. 30
DEBUSSY Images, Book I
GINASTERA Sonata No. 1, op. 22
Semifinal Round – Mozart concerto
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466
Final Round
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, op. 37
PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, op. 26