The Sydney Eisteddfod Kawai Senior Piano Scholarship is a beacon for Australia’s most promising young pianists. This year, the Gold Coast-based musician Oscar Wong emerged as the winner of the 2024 competition, collecting prizes to the value of $12,000.

Wong impressed adjudicators with his performance of a program including Miriam Hyde’s Forest Stream, Chopin’s Preludes, movements from Beethoven’s Sonata in E-flat major, Karol Szymanowski’s Masques and Nikolai Kapustin’s Etudes.

Held at The University of Sydney’s St Paul’s College on 16 August, this year’s competition saw Wong competing against fellow finalists Rachel Shindang (Victoria), Anna Gao (Victoria) and Tony Lu (New South Wales). The 2021 Scholarship winner Calvin Abdiel returned to this year’s event as a guest performer, playing Rachmaninov.

The adjudication panel of Vatche Jambazian, Jerry Wong and Konstantin Shamray commended all the finalists for their performances.

“We are all so thrilled to hear the finalists this evening in a variety of really brilliant repertoire,” said Jerry Wong, speaking on behalf of the panel. “Who succeeds as a winner is not as crucial in this event as the valuable experience of performing in front of this live audience.”

The victory is the another milestone for the emerging...