At the end of March 2025, one of the most esteemed international piano competition in the world, the Long-Thibaud International Competition was held in Paris, France. Many young talents gathered and performed at this competition.

 

Overview of the Competition

The Long-Thibaud Competition was founded more than 80 years ago in 1943 by the great French artists of the first half of the 20th Century: pianist Marguerite Long and violinist Jacques Thibaud. In 2025, the piano competition was held in Paris, France, from 25th to 30th March, and ended with 17-year-old Saehyun Kim (South Korea) winning first prize and Masaharu Kambara (Japan), who performed on Shigeru Kawai, receiving the fourth prize. 

1st Prize Audience Prize Prize of the press Jury Prize of the city of Paris Conservatories	Saehyun KIM	17 years old / South Korea
2nd Prize	-	-
3rd Prize Prize of the Republican Guard Orchestra Prize of André Chevillion-Yvonne Bonnaud	Hyo LEE	17 years old / South Korea
4th Prize	Masaharu KAMBARA	21 years old / Japan
	Tiankun MA	17 years old / China
5th Prize	Eric GUO	22 years old / Canada

(The ages listed are at the time of the competition.)

Saehyun Kim also won the Audience Prize, the Press Jury Prize and a special prize, ‘Prix de Paris’, voted by 20,000 students from 18 music conservatories in Paris. In addition to the 35,000 euro prize money, Kim also will have the opportunity to perform at the ‘Concert de Paris’ on 14th July in front of 400,000 people, according to the competitions’ announcement. He and other prize winners will be invited to numerous music festivals, including La Roque d'Anthéron and the Monte Carlo Opera House.

 

About Long-Thibaud Competition

The first Long-Thibaud competition, held in 1943, was a national competition, with Samson François winning the piano category. Since 1946, it has been held as an international competition. Among the first prize winners have been master pianists such as Aldo Ciccolini (1949), Peter Frankl (1957), and Edward Auer (1967). At the previous piano competition in 2022, Masaya Kamei and Hyuk Lee shared the victory.

This time, the competition attracted 126 applicants from 18 countries. In total, 32 pianists who had passed the preliminary round gathered in Paris, including six pianists who passed the preliminary round in Tokyo, which was made possible through a partnership agreement with Kawai Musical Instruments Manufacturing Co., Ltd.: Ayumu Ibaraki, Jiei Inagaki, Masaharu Kambara, Modan Oyama, Riito Shimata and Mana Takao. The final took place on 30th March at the National Opera-Comique, where Chopin, Liszt and others have also performed. The five finalists performed piano concertos with l’Orchestre Symphonique de la Garde Républicaine, conducted by Bastien Stil. This orchestra was formed in 1848 with twelve brass players from a military band, and is known today as one of the world's finest wind orchestras, but this time, the orchestra also included string players. The jury consisted of ten leading musicians such as Ewa Pobłocka, Pavel Gililov, Mikhail Rudy and Marc Laforet.

Three of the five finalists were 17 years old, and the oldest was 22! (The age limit for the competition is between 16 and 33 years.) Exceptionally, all finalists chose different pieces, allowing the audience to enjoy the five different concertos as if they were at a concert. 

 

Pre-selection in Japan

 

Review of Final Round

Masaharu Kambara

The first performer was Masaharu Kambara, who is currently studying with Shohei Sekimoto and Koki Shimizu in the Piano performance course at Nagoya College of Music. He has won prizes at the Sendai International Music Competition, the PTNA Competition (Superior Grade), and the International Hans von Bülow Competition in Germany, amongst others. Kambara chose Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1, a massive work that lasts about 50 minutes. He listened calmly and concentrated during the magnificent orchestral introduction of the first movement, which is written as Maestoso. When Kambara began to play gently, the conductor and orchestra played along with him. His singing tone for this melody written as Espressivo was very beautiful, creating the long lines of the melody. When he played Arpeggios, the tones shined like pearls. The second movement is a very beautiful movement, full of mixed feelings of consolation and sadness. He started playing as if talking to himself. I was almost drawn in by the tension, especially at the Pianissimo before the Cadenza. At the beginning of the third movement, he began to play firmly and vigorously, a complete change from the previous movements. At times it sounded as if he was dreaming, and then from the second cadenza he seemed to let all his feelings out and finished the performance magnificently.

 

Eric Guo

Next was Eric Guo, who is currently following an Artist Diploma Programme with John Perry and James Anagnoson after obtaining BMus at The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory in Toronto, Canada. Guo has won various international competitions in the past, but is particularly known as the winner of the 2nd International Chopin Competition on period instruments which was held in Warsaw, Poland, in 2023. He selected Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2. He immersed himself in the music, swaying his body while listening to the orchestral introduction of the first movement, and then began to play dramatically. His performance sometimes shows the influence of playing on the fortepiano, perhaps because he has been performing on fortepiano more often in recent years. The deep sound at the beginning of the second movement and improvisational passages were excellent. The repeated themes of the third movement were always expressed in a fresh manner, and especially the fast passages “Leggieramente” were brilliant. 

 

Saehyun Kim

The third pianist before the break was one of the 17-year-olds, Saehyun Kim from South Korea. Kim currently lives in Boston where he is simultaneously pursuing a Bachelor of Arts at Harvard College and a Master of Music at the New England Conservatory, studying in a joint studio of Dang Thai Son and HaeSun Paik. He has won competitions such as the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists 2023 in the USA, where he also won the Audience prize. He calmly began to play the opening, unison melody of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3, and then led the orchestra strongly. The consoling sense of phrasing in the second movement, the light waltz, the heartbreaking expression, took my breath away. The connection to the third movement with the orchestra, which begins with an attacca, was also well synchronised. He played the melody, which reproduces the second theme of the first movement with great expression, and the duet with flute and horn was also beautiful. He played with a variety of tones, a wide range of dynamics and impressed with a deep expression. It’s hard to believe that he is only 17-year-old.  

 

Hyuk Lee

The fourth performer was Hyo Lee from South Korea, also 17 years old. He is the younger brother of Hyuk Lee, who shared the first prize with Masaya Kamei in this competition in 2022. In recent years the brothers have been performing as a duo. Lee entered the Central Music School in Moscow in 2014 as a violinist and even won international competitions. He resumed his piano studies in 2016 and he won third prize at the International Competition for Young Pianists Arthur Rubinstein in memoriam in Poland at the age of 14, becoming the youngest prize winner in the history of this competition. Lee chose Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3. The orchestral introduction began with a gentle clarinet solo, and as the tempo gradually increased, he began to play energetically. In the second movement, his sense of rhythm was remarkable, and even gave the impression that he was comfortable and enjoying his performance. The third movement creates music with a sense of speed together with the orchestra. The end of the coda was like a series of spectacular fireworks that lit up the night sky. 

 

Tiankun Ma

The last finalist was 17-year-old Tiankun Ma from China. He has won various international junior competitions and the Grand Prix Animato International Piano Competition (Chopin Edition, age limit: 30 years old) which was held in Paris, 2023. Ma is currently studying with Huang Yameng at the Central Conservatory of Music of China in Beijing. The piece he chose, Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, is a work in which the piano solo comes first, followed by the orchestra playing in response. After the orchestra finished tuning, Ma slowly placed his hands on the keys and began playing the opening chords marked “Piano” and "Dolce" with a beautiful sound that carried clearly throughout the hall. His playing is structured, colourful and sometimes gorgeous and the trills almost at the end in the cadenza were mesmerizing. The second movement began with a heavy, pleading orchestral introduction and Ma began to play introspectively the melody of the chords marked Una Corda. The tone was sometimes prayerful, creating a contrast in character with the tre corda sections. Ma started to play the third movement sharply. His performance was consistently musical. 

(From left) Tiankun Ma, Hyo Lee, Saehyun Kim, Eric Guo and Masaharu Kambara