Oliver She has taken out this year’s Australian National Piano Award after a weeklong round of performances. The 27-year-old from Brisbane receives the $27,000 First Prize, made up of the City of Greater Shepparton Prize valued at $22,000 and a bursary of $5000 for further music career development.  He also won the Best Performance from the Romantic era award, worth $1000.

Oliver She. Photo supplied

Announcing the winner, Professor Gerard Willems said “the world stops, when magic moments are created on the piano… Our criteria was that the repertoire had to sound fresh, a lot of emotions shed, with love, passion, curiosity and mystery being expressed – the piano had to ‘sing’ and we heard a lot of that all week.” Willems’ fellow adjudicators were Lance Coburn and Joanna MacGregor.

The biennial competition saw 14 pianists from around the country travel to Shepparton, Victoria for their chance at the top prize. Coming in second, 22-year-old Alexander Yau from Sydney received the $10,000 Fairley Foundation Prize and a bursary of $3000. He was also awarded the $1000 Leona and Bruce Sterling Prize for best performance of the music of Mozart or Beethoven.

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