Bocheng Wang secured the third section final win in the 71st year of the ROSL Annual Music Competition with a thrilling performance of Scarlatti and Chopin.
Last night, British pianist Bocheng Wang became the keyboard section final winner of the 71st ROSL Annual Music Competition, taking home £5,000 and claiming the penultimate spot in the Gold Medal Final, which this year will take place at Wigmore Hall on Wednesday 14th June 2023.
Four soloists competed in the hotly contested Keyboard section final, selected the previous day from fifteen shortlisted semi-finalists. Callum Mclachlan piano, Gabriele Strata piano, Gabrielė Sutkutė piano and Bocheng Wang piano all gave thrilling performances to the gathered audience in the Princess Alexandra Hall. The adjudicators Danny Driver, Noriko Ogawa, Geoff Parkin and Sophia Rahman were given the difficult task of choosing the night’s winner and the soloist who will go onto compete for the Gold Medal and a further £15,000. In the end, the ROSL Award for Keyboard was awarded to Bocheng Wang by the panel. Such was the talent onstage that the panel also decided to award Italian pianist Gabriele Strata The Kerr Memorial Prize for an Outstanding Pianist of Promise, and £1,000.
The night's winner Bocheng Wang is a British pianist who is currently completing his Master’s at the Royal Academy of Music and will continue studying for his Advanced Diploma with Prof. Ian Fountain. He has performed solo recitals across Europe in venues including Wigmore Hall, King’s Place, Fazioli Hall, Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Music Hall, and Pereda Hall. He has also performed in festivals including PianoTexas, Ferrara, Oxford, Dartington and International Musical Artistry Goslar, as well as in masterclasses with renowned musicians including Richard Goode, Arie Vardi, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Dmitri Alexeev and Steven Osborne.
New for this year, ROSL has partnered with Making Music to offer our section final winners the chance to join the Philip & Dorothy Green Young Artist Award (PDGYA) for one year. As a section final winner, Bocheng will be featured in the new Recommended Artist Guide and have the opportunity to be booked for performances with Making Music’s member promoters.
In the 71st year of competition, ROSL is proud of the legacy that the competition has inspired, and prize winners continue to think of the organisation as an artistic home, long after their prize money has been spent. Last night’s audience included keyboard prize winners from 1972 all the way up until 2023. With prize winners Danny Driver (2001) and Sophia Rahman (1992) both serving on the panel, guests also included Piers Lane (1982), Tessa Uys (1972), Ben Schoeman (2009), Dominic Degavino (2017) and George Todica (2022) in the audience, all there to welcome the new winner into the mix.
ROSL Annual Music Competition Section Finals take place each Tuesday 7-9pm at Over-Seas House, Park Place, St James’s Street, London, SW1A 1LR.
If you missed last night's exciting final, you can catch up here:
