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Lim Yun-chan, the 18-year-old winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (provided by Kumho Art Hall)

Since last year, a theory has been making the rounds in online classical music communities about a piano genius being born once every 10 years. According to this theory, the genius who will pick up the baton from Lim Dong-hyek (born in 1984) and Cho Seong-jin (1994) just might be Lim Yun-chan, who is now 18 years old.

Lim Dong-hyek tied for third place with his brother Lim Dong-min in the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2005, and Cho Seong-jin won the same competition in 2015. Now that Lim Yun-chan has become the youngest contestant to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, in Texas, on Saturday, it may be time to take that seemingly absurd once-a-decade genius theory more seriously.

Lim Yun-chan put on a truly overwhelming display of ability at the competition. When he reached the finals, along with five other contestants, his selections were Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Lim’s performance of the latter of those pieces, which was streamed live on YouTube, was showered with praise.

“I think this was a monumental performance that ought to be treasured by the global music establishment in 2022. I’ve taken pride in Korea’s Cho Seong-jin, regarding him as a pianist that heaven sent down to earth. And now it’s thrilling to think that heaven has sent us another pianist,” wrote Cho Eun-ah, herself a pianist, on Facebook.

Cho Eun-ah wrote this before the winner of the competition was even announced. Many of the people commenting on the YouTube livestream said that Lim’s moving performance had brought them to tears. The people in the live audience rose to their feet in unison to deliver thunderous applause.

A poster of Lim Yun-chan from the Kumho Prodigy Concert Series of 2015, when Lim was 11 years old (provided by Kumho Art Hall)

In fact, Lim had garnered the most attention of the 12 contestants in the semifinals, when he performed the Transcendental Études by Liszt, a diabolically demanding cycle that’s considered one the most technically demanding in the repertory. They even seemed to stump Schumann, the famous composer, who wryly observed that the only person capable of producing a decent rendition was Liszt himself.

Nevertheless, Lim powered through all 12 pieces in the 65-minute cycle without a single break.

“Liszt spent his entire life writing those pieces. I thought that by performing them all at once, I could give proper expression to his life as a composer,” the pianist said when asked why he’d performed all 12 pieces without an intermission in a solo recital in October 2021.

Marin Alsop conducted during Lim Yun-chan’s performance in the finals of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. (provided by Moc Production)

This prodigy’s beginnings were quite ordinary. When he was 7, he enrolled in lessons at a piano academy in his neighborhood after his mother — like many other Korean mothers — suggested he try learning an instrument. That means he got started later than the typical piano prodigy, who begins playing at the age of 3 or 4.

There were no musicians in Lim’s family, either. “When I was young, I went to a piano academy in my apartment complex because I was bored while my friends were doing taekwondo. That’s how I got into music,” he said in an interview with the press.

When Lim was in the second grade of elementary school, he begged his parents to let him try out for a “musical talent academy” at the Seoul Arts Center that he’d happened across an ad for. While he passed the audition, the teachers at the academy kept telling him he didn’t have a solid foundation.

Lim was also frequently compared to students who’d received intense training on the piano from an early age. But instead of getting disappointed, he kept plugging away without rushing things, and his musical talent grew steadily.

Lim became more widely known when he took first place in the Isangyun Competition in 2019. He was only 15 years old at the time. Around this time, people started saying an incredible prodigy had appeared on the scene.

In fact, Lim had been garnering recognition for his musical gift for some time. He debuted in the Kumho Prodigy Concert Series in 2015, at the age of 11, and came in second in the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition in the US in 2018, at the age of 14.

Lim Yun-chan still has a boyish look about him, which is echoed by his fondness for 80s-era pop star Yoo Jae-ha. But he has been studying under the pianist Sohn Min-soo at the Korea National University of Arts since 2017.

Sohn has dubbed his pupil the “time traveler,” because “his immersion in music reminds me of someone living in the 18th or 19th century.” According to Sohn, Lim was “born to perform,” referring to the explosive metamorphosis this typically quiet and soft-spoken pianist undergoes upon taking the stage.

“I want to keep finding and studying new songs until I’ve mastered the world’s entire repertoire,” Lim says when asked about his ambitions. Along with his teacher, Sohn, the pianists that Lim admires are Daniil Trifonov of Russia and Russell Sherman, a renowned pianist and educator from the US.

The pieces that Lim hopes to add to his repertory are everything in Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, all of Mozart and Beethoven’s piano sonatas, and all of Shostakovich’s preludes and fugues.

Lim Yun-chan, the 18-year-old winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (provided by Kumho Art Hall)

There were 388 pianists from 51 countries who applied to compete in this year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, which began on June 2. But only 30 of them passed the qualifiers and entered the main competition.

From an early point, commenters on YouTube, where the competition was being streamed, were predicting Lim’s victory. One well-known YouTuber went so far as to declare that Lim had been confirmed as the winner — a day before the actual results were announced.

In apparent confirmation, Lim got the most votes in an online poll of more than 30,000 classical music fans around the world, winning the Carla and Kelly Thompson Audience Award.

“I wanted my music to grow even more profound through this competition, and I think my sincerity has gotten through to the audience,” Lim said following the competition.

Lim also won the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New Work, which is given for the finest performance of a contemporary piece. That was his third award to win in this year’s competition.

Lim was awarded US$100,000 for winning first place, along with US$7,500 for the two other awards. He will also receive three years of individualized career management, which includes a global concert series and an opportunity to release albums.

As the biggest competition in North America, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is famous for being unstinting in its support for prize winners.

“I’m the kind of person who wants to go into the woods and just play piano. But if that’s all you do, you can’t make any money. I don’t have the slightest ambition for my career, and I signed up for this competition to see how mature my music has grown before I become an adult next year. I may have won this competition, but I still have a lot to study,” Lim said.

Pianist Lim Yun-chan accompanies the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra conducted by chair of the jury Marin Alsop during the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. (AP/Yonhap News)

Held every four years since 1962, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition is limited to the area of piano, just like the International Chopin Piano Competition. The competition commemorates Van Cliburn (1934–2013), the pianist who became an instant American hero after winning the first International Tchaikovsky Competition, held by the Soviet Union, in 1958.

The winner of the previous competition (in 2017) was Sunwoo Yekwon, while Son Yeol-eum and Joyce Yang (Korean name Yang Hui-won) have both come in second place, Son in 2009 and Yang in 2005.

World-famous pianist Radu Lupu, who recently passed away, won the competition in 1966.

Korean pianists Kim Hong-gi (30), Park Jin-hyung (26) and Shin Chang-yong (28) all made it to the semifinals, but only Lim Yun-chan progressed to the finals.

Lim holds his trophy after winning gold at the Van Cliburn competition on June 18 in Fort Worth, Texas. (provided by the Van Cliburn Foundation/WFIMC)

Another person who took a special interest in Lim was Marin Alsop (66), chair of the jury for this year’s competition as well as the conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra during the final round. Following his performance in the finals, Alsop wiped away tears as she embraced Lim backstage.

Alsop was one of the real-life inspirations of the 2019 film “The Conductor.” She broke through the “glass ceiling” by becoming the first woman to become a permanent conductor of a leading orchestra in the US.

Alsop was the conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for 14 years and has been leading the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since last year.

By Lim Suk-kyoo, senior staff writer

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]