CreatripTeam

American pianist Eric Lu won the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw with unanimous praise for his nuanced interpretation. The event also introduced a new private-sector award, the MAST Media Prize, created by Korean promoter MAST Media — the first time a Korean private company has established a prize at the Chopin Institute’s non-regulatory awards (Non-regulatory Prize). MAST Media, which presented Lu in Seoul in 2022, named Lu its inaugural recipient and will host a winners’ gala concert in February 2026 featuring Lu, other top prizewinners, and the Warsaw Philharmonic. The competition, founded in 1927, evaluates pianists solely on Chopin’s works and has launched many leading pianists such as Martha Argerich, Krystian Zimerman, and Seong-Jin Cho (Korean pianist 조성진).