Young Christchurch pianist, Lixin Zhang, due to perform for the Waikanae Music Society on Sunday 1 August, has just won the Silver Medal in the prestigious Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Piano Competition in the United States. Based in Salt Lake City, the competition is the second most important piano competition in the United States and has launched the careers of many outstanding international performers.
Because of the pandemic the competition was live-streamed this year with the five finalists performing from their various home bases in the USA, Germany, China, and Christchurch New Zealand.
Lixin is only 19, but he has already won all the major piano competitions in New Zealand, including the National Concerto Competition twice. He has already been studying at the Colburn Conservatory in California and has performed in Asia and Europe. His first CD, released in 2018, promptly reached first place in Radio NZ’s Classical Charts.
He says he is very excited to have won this award and is looking forward to returning to California soon to resume one-on-one tuition again after a long period of studying remotely from his home in Christchurch.
For his Waikanae concert Lixin will be playing works by Chopin (including the great B minor Sonata), Mozart and Liszt’s dramatic Vallée d’Obermann.
The concert, in the Waikanae Memorial Hall is at 2.30pm. Door sales will be available and tickets can be bought at Waikanae New World, Moby Dickens Books in Paraparaumu Beach or from the society website at www.waikanaemusic.org.nz
