Emma Liu ’26 and Victoria Fang ’25 demonstrated their exceptional talent by securing the second and third prizes, respectively, in the fiercely competitive 20th Mozarte International Piano Competition held in Aachen, Germany, from Sept. 11-14. 

Emma performed Beethoven Sonata op. 10 No. 3, Chopin Polonaise in F-sharp minor op. 44, and Prokofiev Sonata op. 1 no. 1. Victoria performed Schumann Sonata op. 22, Debussy L’Isle Joyeuse, and Stephen Hough Fanfarre Toccata. 

The 20th edition of this prestigious competition selected 80 pianists from all over the world, including Germany, Belgium, Spain, Russia, Estonia, Armenia, China, South Korea, the United States, Ireland, Slovakia, Turkey, Romania, Ukraine, Israel, Croatia, Poland, Japan, Sweden, Taiwan, Chile, Italy, Vietnam, Canada. 

The competition was divided into four categories: Professional (18 years and up), Young Artist (12-17 years old), Junior B (10-12 years old), and Junior A (up to 10 years old).

Organized by the Aachen branch of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, one of the largest music academies in Europe, the competition invited a group of internationally renowned pianists to judge each 25-minute round. The judges were Andreas Frölich (Germany), Pavel Giliov (Austria), Phillip Raskin (Belgium), Ashley Wass (UK), Antonio Pompa-Baldi (Italy), Leonel Morales (Spain), Vanessa Kleva (Croatia), Svetlanova Egenian (France), Henri Sigfridsson (Iceland), Vicenzo Balzani (Italy), Ayako Koyama (Japan), Giuseppe Devastato (Italy) and Hotchkiss’s Fabio and Gisele Witkowski (USA/Brazil).