Lim Yunchan becomes 1st S. Korean pianist to win prestigious Gramophone award

South Korean Pianist Lim Yunchan won the prestigious Gramophone Classical Music Award in the piano category, the annual British award’s organizer said Wednesday, marking the first time that a Korean pianist has received the prize dubbed the Oscars for classical music.

During a ceremony in London, Lim, 20, received the coveted award for his album, “Chopin: Etudes.” He also won the “Young Artist of the Year” award.

Launched in 1977, the award is one of the most significant honors given to recordings in the classical record industry. It is often seen as an event equivalent to America’s Grammy Awards or called the Oscars for classical music.

Gramophone’s historical recordings expert Rob Cowan described Lim’s account of Chopin’s Etudes as being “among the finest available.”

“There’s the superhuman control of dynamics that can swirl this way or that, with never a break in the line,” he wrote on the magazine’s website. “In the short term, I doubt that any other recording of the Etudes will deliver more: a magnificent achievement.”

Lim became the first Korean to win the award in the piano category, but other South Korean artists have won awards in other categories in the past. Violinist Chung Kyung-wha won the award twice — in 1990 and 1994 — and cellist Han-Na Chang in 2003.

Among three finalists in the piano category of this year’s contest were two of Lim’s albums, including “Yoonchan Lim-Liszt: Transcendental Etudes.” It marked the first time that two albums by the same pianist have made it to the final Gramophone list in a single category.

Lim rose to international preeminence in 2022 when he won the top prize at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, becoming the youngest-ever winner of the decadesold international contest in the United States.

He started to get international attention at age 14 when he won second prize and the Chopin Special Award in his first-ever competition, the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists in 2018.

In the same year, Lim won the third-place prize and the audience prize in the Cooper International Competition. In 2019, he became the youngest to win Korea’s Isang Yun International Competition.