Denmark: American pianist wins international piano contest

The Chinese-born An performed Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 in the competition's final round on Thursday night, winning the US$25,500 prize. Russians Alexander Moutouzkine and Zlata Chochieva took second and third place in the contest, held at a concert hall in downtown Copenhagen's Tivoli amusement park.

Photo: Denmark: American pianist wins international piano contest

Twelve pianists from eight countries had been announced as semifinalists on July 18. They included Germany's Andrei Kasik; Lim Hyo-Sun, Cheung Jae-Won and Kim So-Jin of South Korea; Arta Arnicane of Latvia; China's Li Chenyin and Tang Diyi; Dorel Golan from Israel, and Tristan Pfaff of France, the AP reports.

In the final round, Moutouzkine was asked to perform Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, and Chochieva played Schumann's Piano Concerto. They were awarded second- and third-place prizes of Ђ 10,000 (US$12,740) and Ђ 5,000 (US$6,400).

The contest's three judges were John Barstow of the Royal College of Music in London, Swedish pianist Bengt Forsberg and Denmark's Katrine Gislinge, also a pianist.