"Honest" Judging at Modern Piano Competitions — The Case of the Chopin Competition 2025

The chairman of the jury, Garrick Ohlsson, happens to be from the United States as well — as are several other jury members, including Robert McDonald, who was actually Eric Lu’s teacher.

Before that, Eric studied with another jury member — Dang Thai Son, the winner of the Chopin Competition back in 1980.

Of course, Robert and Dang surely didn’t vote for their student — that would be unethical.
And surely no one else would vote for Eric so that his teachers could “repay” the favor later, right?
No, no — that would never happen. The judging was honest, after all.

Ah yes, and let’s not forget — at the previous Chopin Competition, the winner also happened to be a student of Dang Thai Son.
A coincidence, of course. Just like the fact that several other jury members — Garrick Ohlsson, Kevin Kenner, Yulianna Avdeeva, and John Rink — are all former Chopin laureates who know Dang Thai Son quite well.

Honestly, I wouldn’t even be writing this article if it weren’t for another contestant who ended up in 5th place — a pianist who, in my humble opinion, played two heads above Eric Lu.

🥉 5th Prize — Vincent Ong (Malaysia)
(pictured above)

An absolutely brilliant young artist.
But, unfortunately, he didn’t have any friends on the jury — so he got fifth place.
Such are the realities of our modern competition world, and the current level of musical “development” of those who often sit in judgment.

The chairman this year was not Arthur Rubinstein, who once honestly admitted that “Pollini understands Chopin better than all of us in the jury combined.”
No — this year’s chairman was Garrick Ohlsson, who, in a podcast with Ben Laude, explains how to make a “beautiful hand lift” at the end of Chopin’s 24th Prelude.
By the way, Pollini played that very note (the D) with his left hand — with 100% accuracy in musical meaning.
But who cares about musical meaning these days, right?

Honestly, I have no idea which music schools some members of the Chopin Competition jury graduated from.
I’m sure many of them are excellent musicians and can hear what I hear — but who would dare to go against the system?
And really, who needs “honesty” when you know that, at the next competition, your own students could be punished for your integrity?
Of course, they’re not fools — they understand how it all works.

But I’m not writing this article to make anyone upset. Quite the opposite.
Play music for joy. Don’t place your hopes on competitions — they are a lottery.

I’m sure we’ll be hearing much more about Vincent Ong (by the way, he won the Schumann Competition last year!).
And no — I don’t know Vincent personally. I simply discovered him thanks to the Chopin Competition.

So, thank you, competition — if not for the fairness of the results, then at least for that.

Wishing everyone good luck and good humor!
Love music — and take everything in life philosophically

Best regards,

• Volodymyr Slakva
  Piano teacher for students worldwide (online)