Nguyễn Việt Trung performs at the first round of the Competition. Photo courtesy of Chopin2020.pl website

WARSAW Vietnamese-Polish contestant Nguyễn Việt Trung got into the second round along with 45 other contestants from 14 countries at the ongoing 18th International Chopin Piano Competition. 

Music fans in Việt Nam have been enthralled since Trung got to play in the competition, which started on October 2nd and shall end October 23. 

Taking place at 5-year interval, the competition, supposedly to have taken place in 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Born in 1996 in Hà Nội to Vietnamese parents, he grew up in Warsaw and went to study music with Polish teachers. He is a student of Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. He has won many prizes in piano competitions, including fifth prize in the National Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw (2020), the grand prix in the Vietnam International Chamber Music Competition (2019), third prize in the Karlovac International Piano Competition in Croatia (2019), and the grand prix and first prize in the All-Poland CEA Auditions (2014).

He had his first public concert aged 11 with the Việt Nam National Symphony Orchestra in Hà Nội. He also performed at the Artur Rubinstein Festival in Łódź (2019) and the Frost Chopin Piano Festival (2018). As a soloist, he has played with the Vietnamese Symphony Orchestra, Hanoi Symphony Orchestra and Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra. He has given concerts in Poland, the US, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Vietnam and Japan.

Forty years after world-acclaimed pianist Đặng Thái Sơn won Grand Prize at the 10th Chopin competition, this is the second contestant who holds a Vietnamese citizenship. VNS