Eric Lu on playing the pieces everyone plays
The 2025 Chopin Competition winner on bringing something new to music everyone already knows.
Eric Lu won first prize at the 2025 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, the first American to win it in 55 years. He also won the 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition, and became one of the youngest laureates in the Chopin Competition’s history when he placed fourth at 17 in 2015.
Here are ten of his best tips, taken from feedback he gave young pianists after live performances, with a link to each moment on video.
1. Bring something new to the pieces everyone plays
Nowadays these Chopin pieces are so popular and played by everybody, from teenagers all the way to adults. When pieces are played so often and everybody knows them, it’s even more important to bring something special to the piece.
Eric Lu
2. Care about the note after you play it
The main issue is that you don’t seem to be concerned enough with the note after you play it.
Eric Lu
3. A repeated idea should never sound the same twice
When a short motive comes back again and again, he said, each return needs its own color.
They sound too similar to each other. There can be a lot more variety in color, timing and shading. But especially, the notes cannot sound one after another. They have to have a connection.
Eric Lu
4. Loud music needs long lines even more
In powerful music we have even less practical ability to differentiate tone and touch than in soft piano music, so it’s even more important to have this thinking of the long line.
Eric Lu
5. Mendelssohn is harder than it looks
Mendelssohn in general is very tricky and much more difficult than maybe is perceived, because it requires so much technical precision as well as a very sophisticated musical sense and phrasing.
Eric Lu
6. Know where every sentence is going
Have an idea of where the sentence goes to, where it stops, and where a sequence continues.
Eric Lu
7. Don’t think one note at a time
You need to go further in your imagination of sound and phrasing, how to connect notes to each other. There’s too much thinking one note at a time, without the feeling of where the line is going.
Eric Lu
8. A static body makes a static sound
Physically you’re a bit too static, a bit tense. I don’t really care what things look like, but it translates into the sound, which doesn’t have enough variety and imagination.
Eric Lu
9. Watch out for tunnel vision
Sometimes you are in a kind of tunnel vision, where certain things need some breath or simply a placement of a note, and it just goes there directly without much thought.
Eric Lu
10. Give the final chords their weight
The last three chords, especially the last one, could have more weight. The finality is missing a bit.
Eric Lu
Quotes are lightly edited for length and clarity. They come from Mr. Lu’s comments as a judge at the 2024 Piano Star International Competition. You can watch the full performances and feedback on the Piano League YouTube channel.
Quick question
Which of these do you struggle with most?
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