WARSAW, Oct 21, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - American pianist Eric Lu won the top prize at the prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition, the contest's Polish organisers said Tuesday.

The competition -- held every five years in Frederic Chopin's homeland -- is seen as a gateway to classical music glory, with winners going on to play top global venues and sign recording deals.

"The first prize and gold medal goes to Eric Lu," Chopin Institute director Artur Szklener told reporters at Warsaw's National Philharmonic concert hall early Tuesday morning.

Lu, 27, will embark on a months-long tour, with performances in concert halls across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

"This is a dream come true," Lu told reporters in Warsaw, thanking "all the Chopin lovers around the world".

Pianists vying for the top prize performed in a multi-stage contest to showcase their skills in various musical forms composed by Chopin, including polonaises, sonatas and mazurkas.

It culminated with a final round that saw 11 pianists performing one of two Chopin piano concertos and his Polonaise-Fantaisie, considered notoriously difficult to master.

Previous winners of the competition include some of the biggest names in classical music, including Maurizio Pollini, Martha Argerich and Krystian Zimerman.

American pianist Garrick Ohlsson, who won the top prize in 1970, chaired the jury that selected this year's winner.

"We had a number of very difficult discussions involving our opinions about artistic matters", Ohlsson said.

The winner receives a prize of 60,000 euros ($70,000).

Young pianists aged 16 to 30 were eligible to take part in the competition, first held in 1927, and the Warsaw organisers received a record number of more than 600 applications for this year's edition.

Only around a tenth of them made it through a complex qualification process that included playing in a preliminary round in Warsaw.

The last event, held in 2021 after being deferred because of the Covid pandemic, ended with Canadian pianist Bruce Liu scoring the highest accolade.

Broadcast live on YouTube, the contest attracted record online interest.

Tickets for the competition had sold out within 30 minutes of their release online, with the final round tickets gone in two minutes.