FORT WORTH — At a Saturday evening awards ceremony, prize winners in the 2025 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition were announced from the stage of Bass Performance Hall. The ceremony followed four final round concerts in which each of six finalists played two piano concertos with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, led by guest conductor Marin Alsop.
The prize winners:
$100,000 Gold Medal: Aristo Sham, Hong Kong, China
$50,000 Silver Medal: Vitaly Starikov, Israel/Russia
$25,000 Bronze Medal: Evren Ozel, United States
Award for the Best Performance of a New Work: Yangrui Cai, China
Award for Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto: Evren Ozel, United States
Jury Chairman Discretionary Award: Mikhail Kambarov, Russia
Jury Discretionary Awards: Jonas Aumiller, Germany; Alice Burla, Canada
Audience Award: Aristo Sham, Hong Kong, China
The top three prizes also include three years of career management, tours, recordings, press kits, videos and websites. In addition to cash prizes for all the specific awards, there are cash awards to each of the competition’s preliminary, quarterfinal, semifinal and final round pianists.
Inaugurated in 1962 and held every four years in Fort Worth, the Cliburn is one of the world’s highest-visibility classical music contests. Open to pianists 18 to 30, it drew 340 applicants this time. In advance video and live auditions, 30 were picked to participate in the actual competition, from 17 countries and regions (including dual representation): Canada, China, Georgia, Germany, Hong Kong China, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States. The competition was followed worldwide via high-quality video livestreams.
Competitors performed solo recitals in preliminary, quarterfinal and semifinal rounds; semifinalists also performed Mozart concertos with the Fort Worth Symphony. Competition rules instruct the jury — this time an international group of nine pianists chaired by Paul Lewis — to consider each finalist’s performances in all rounds.
