Piano star wins big at festival
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/03/2023 (951 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Eleven-year-old Darwin Chen wowed audiences at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s inaugural Music Lights the Way piano festival, which wrapped up in Toronto earlier this week.
After Chen’s live performance at Koerner Hall, event organizers announced Wednesday the Brandon musician was victorious in the contest’s Level 6 Youth Division, which secured him the grand prize of an upright Yamaha piano worth more than $6,000.
“I am so proud of myself and I’m super happy to have been chosen for the Level 6 winner!” Chen wrote in an email to the Sun on Thursday.
Darwin Chen, photographed earlier this month, recently performed at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s inaugural Music Lights the Way festival in Toronto. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)
While the scale of the contest was significant, with more than 8,000 submissions across North America, Chen is no stranger to performing under pressure, having first started piano lessons at the age of six.
Under the tutelage of instructor Sherridan Anderson, Chen has fine-tuned his craft and participated in events like the most recent Brandon Festival of the Arts, putting him in the right mindset for the Music Lights the Way event in Toronto.
“He always has such a joy about him with it,” Anderson told the Sun earlier this month.
“Beyond the brilliance of what he does, it’s the joy that he does it with.”
Chen entered the Music Lights the Way festival late last year with a video submission of him playing “Happy Time Jazz” by Martha Mier.
From there, he survived the semifinal and final selection rounds, with the process culminating at this week’s live performance in Toronto.
The grand finale featured youth and adult pianists from all over Canada and the United States, with participants hailing from Washington, California, Texas, Michigan, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.
While Chen admitted he still gets nervous before a large performance, he manages to “keep calm” by getting lost in his love of music.
“I love that I get to perform in front of big crowds, and I love that I get to perform in front of my family,” he said earlier this month.
Even though Chen isn’t sure if he wants to centre his future career around the piano, he’s confident that his relationship with music will be a “lifelong” affair and encourages other children his age to pursue their own artistic passions.
“I think you should enjoy the music that you’re playing, and always be proud of yourself,” he previously said.
The Royal Conservatory of Music is a non-profit music education institution and performance venue that was established in 1886.
Its mission is to “develop human potential through leadership in music and the arts,” according to its website.
» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com, with files from Miranda Leybourne
» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson