Queens Continues the Charlotte Concerts Legacy with 2022 Cliburn Medalist Dmytro Choni of Ukraine

Queens University of Charlotte is pleased to present pianist and Cliburn medalist, Dmytro Choni, in a solo piano recital on Monday, November 21 at 8 p.m. at the Sarah Belk Gambrell Center for the Arts and Civic Engagement. In this exclusive North Carolina performance, Choni will perform works by Prokofiev, Scriabin, Debussy and Liszt. Part of the Arts at Queens Spotlight Series, the concert is presented by the Charlotte Concerts Legacy Fund with sponsorship support provided by WDAV.

Choni took home bronze at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June 2022—only the second Ukrainian pianist to medal at the prestigious contest. He won hearts and accolades with a compelling and colorful musicality that is fortified by a genuine, immediately engaging stage presence. As one critic of the Dallas Morning News noted: “Each time he strode onstage, it was with winning confidence and a big smile. He’s clearly an accomplished, assured―and communicative—pro.”

Widely considered one of the preeminent international music contests, the Cliburn Competition exists to share excellent classical music with the largest international audience possible and to launch the careers of its old winners. The world’s top 18- to 31-year-old pianists compete for gold in front of a live audience in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as a global online viewership of over 10 million.

Choni has taken first prize at six international piano competitions, has performed in the world’s greatest halls and collaborated with many leading orchestras. He called his acceptance into the 2022 Cliburn Competition, “nothing else but my dream.”

Twenty-eight-year-old Choni began piano in his native Kyiv in Ukraine when he was just four years old. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine under the guidance of Yuri Kot, then moved to Austria in 2015 to study at the Kunstuniversität Graz.

Speaking to the Fort Worth Report, he said, music is “always kind of a hideaway from what’s going on in the world. Through the music, you can try to project the best possible emotion, the optimism, the hope.”

Choni’s debut album was released by Naxos in 2020; it received a “Supersonic Award” from Pizzicato and was highly acclaimed by international critics, one raving he “could be one of the 21st century’s most outstanding pianists.”