World's Best Pianist Contest

Okay, So I know I just posted a blog post like minutes ago and there is like an unwritten code that you shouldn't post two post back to back. But the I have to brag for a moment, because this was the COOLEST thing ever.

Yes, you guessed it. I went to the XV Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition Last night. I was 6 rows behind the greatest world pianists.

Here's the low down. There were only 6 competitors left:
2 from Cina
2 from Ukraine
1 from Japan
1 from Russia

I, however, only got to hear 3 of them: the Chinese man, a Ukrainian man, and the Russian man.

They played with the Utah Symphony which was already cool. But seriously, it was one of the coolest things I have ever been too! These pianists were extraordinary.

3 of the 6 contestants played Rachmaninoff and 2 of the 3 actually played the exact same numbers, which I personally think kind of hurt them. But it probably helped the 3rd guy playing the different # of Rachmaninoff.

Here were the winners (I know Will and Joe are eager to know if their Mission Countries won or not. Don't worry Dad and Ned. There was at least one French contestant which is pretty amazing):

6th Place: Zhang Zuo from China -played Rachmaninoff #2

5th Place: Kotaro Fukuma from Japan -played Schumann (sorry Joe...but he was top6!)

4th place: Yunjie Chen from China -Chopin #1 (He was brilliant and he won Best National Pianist in China at age 12!!)

3rd place: Dmitri Levkovich from Ukraine and now Canada -played Rachmaninoff #2

2nd Place: Serhiy Salov from Ukraine -played Brahms #2 (I think he possibly got @nd place because he was the only contestant to play a piece in Major)

And 1st place (you guessed it): Lukas Genusas from RUSSIA -played Rachmaninoff #3

Lukas Geniusas was AMAZING! Not only was he the youngest contestant, turning 20, yesterday and celebrating his birthday at the competition, but ( I believe) he graduated from a Chopin college at age 16.

He was beautiful and ridiculously skilled. But my favorite thing however was the fact that after he was done, he kept giving a hand to the conductor and the symphony and quickly escaped the applause. The conductor had to grab him back out so we could thoroughly applaud for him.

He was modest. He was brilliant. And I read a quote from him that he played music because he felt it brought people closer to God.

Here's a video I found of last night. This is video 5 out of 5. So if you want to see the whole thing just look it up on Youtube. This is different being able to actually see his hands, because at my angle I could only hear what lovely music they were making. ENJOY!