Ching Toa Aristo Sham Wins the 2008 Junior Bachauer Competition

In my previous post I mentioned a performance by Ching-Toa Aristo Sham. This evening I attended the final rounds of the 2008 Junior Bachauer competition, and to no surprise this talented young artist won 1st prize in the competition.

The final round was sold out to a good sized crowd. Unfortunately, the competition was delayed by three hours due to a power failure and the entire competition had to be moved to an alternate location.

There were six finalists (in order of performance and left to right in the picture):

• Qi Xu - 13 years old from China
• George Li - 12 years old from USA
• Jan Lisiecki - 13 years old from Canada
• Ching Toa Aristo Sham - 12 years old from Hong Kong
• Yi Jia Wang - 12 years old from China
• Anna Han - 12 years old from USA

They all gave amazing performances - even despite the late hour (it was almost midnight when the performances concluded). George Li took second place and Ching Toa took first place. I was so impressed with all of their performances.

The final round consisted of concerti with piano accompanyment taking the place of the orchestra. I was very impressed with George Li's Concerto No. 2 by Saint-Saens. It was exciting and he definitely has a great stage presence about it. Ching Toa's Concerto No. 1 by Beethoven was amazing. He has a subtle power to his music that amplifies the performance ten-fold. His technique was crisp and his musicianship was beyond his years.

What an amazing experience it has been to participate in the Gina Bachauer Junior competition. I am looking forward to the Young Artist competition that begins next week. Again, for those of you in the Salt Lake area, I encourage you to attend. You will be amazed and astounded at the great music produced by such young artists.