Piano final at the Teatro San Rocco of Seregno

The announcement was made after midnight, on the 28th September, in front of a packed Teatro San Rocco. Pianist Rui Ming was awarded First Prize ahead of Michelle Candotti and Yiyang Chen. 

Born in 2006 in Jinan (China), he started playing the piano at the age of 5. In 2011–2019, he was a student of Larisa Liang at the Beriozka Russian-Chinese School of Arts, Jinan. Since 2019, he has been studying at the Moscow Conservatory's Central Music School under Daria Ryabova. He has been a prize-winner of several national and international competitions for young pianists in China and Russia. In an interview for the organizers of the Competiiton, he admitting enjoying everything in Italy, especially the culture: "Only with the piano can we express so many different sounds and share multiple universes and that is why I like it so much. I like the repertoire of Ettore Pozzoli which helps me a lot with technical aspects of the piano playing. Having heard about the Pozzoli competition many years ago I trained to participate in it".  

Michelle Candotti obtained her Piano Diploma with top marks at the age of 14 under the guidance of Prof. Laura Palmieri. She later earned a three-year Diploma at the “Incontri col Maestro” Academy in Imola with M° Enrico Pace, as well as a Master in Performance with distinction and an Artist Diploma at the Royal College of Music in London under M° Dmitri Alexeev. She has performed with renowned orchestras, including the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Concerto Orchestra, the Philharmonia Frankfurt, the Città di Grosseto Symphony Orchestra, the Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Fondazione Goldoni Orchestra. She has appeared in prestigious venues such as the Paolina Chapel at the Quirinal Palace in Rome, performing for the President of the Italian Republic, with the concert broadcast live on RAI Radio3. She has also played at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Royal Park in Warsaw in front of over 3000 people, and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, where she performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 K595. She is currently continuing her studies with M° Carlo Palese in Livorno and is enrolled in the Konzertexamen program at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg under M° Hubert Rutkowski. She is also supported by the Flugel Fundus.

Born on 2 December 2006, Yiyang Chen studied at the Musical School attached to Xinghai Conservatory of Music under Pengjie Sun. He is currently studying at the Central Beijing Conservatory of Music with Professor Jianing Kong. He has triumphed at the Stockholm International Music Competition (1st prize), the Sibelius Competition in Turku (4th prize) and the Steinway & Sons International Competition in Beijing (5th prize). He has also been awarded a prize at the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition for Children & Youth in Szafarnia.