Virtuoso victory: American pianist Eric Lu triumphs at Poland's International Chopin Competition

It's easy to understand why 27-year-old Eric Lu hailed his victory at Poland's International Fryderyk Chopin Competition as a "dream come true."

The event, often described in classical circles as the Olympics of piano playing, takes place once every five years. Many are called, but only a few, a very select few, are chosen.

Auditions for this, the 19th edition, began a little over two weeks ago when eleven of the highest-rated pianists lined up for the finals.

Going for gold

Accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrzej Boreyko, each of them performed one of Chopin's two piano concertos and Polonaise-Fantasy, Op. 61.

Originally more than 640 young artists from all over the world applied to compete. The largest group of players were from China, followed by Poland and Japan.

When the music stopped, the 17-member jury, chaired by Garrick Ohlsson, awarded the gold medal to Lu and a cheque for €60,000. The silver medal was awarded to Canada's Kevin Chen with bronze going to Zitong Wang of China.

Local favourite, Piotr Alexewicz finished joint fifth with Vincent Ong of Malaysia.

"This is a dream come true, I am very touched," said Lu after the verdict was announced. "I would also like to thank all Chopin lovers around the world," - added the laureate.

Special awards

Special prizes were also presented to several performers.

The best performance of mazurkas award went to Yehuda Prokopowicz from Poland while the prize for the best performance of a ballad went to Adam Kałduński; China's Tianyao Lyu took home the special prize for the best performance of a concerto.