“CityNews” caught up with the art of Krupi?ski, who turned 25 over the weekend, at a high-tea recital in the Red Hill home of Brian and Dianne Anderson, a day after he had performed an entirely different program at the Polish embassy.

Dianne Anderson urged music patrons in attendance to get behind the coming festival, which she estimated would cost about $100,000 to put on, describing the event and its organisers as “very professional”. She said that arts patron Mrs Jeanne Pratt, of Melbourne, had already chipped in $25,000 for the first prize

Ben James, Friends of Chopin president, joined Anderson in encouraging audience members to bring their friends and ensure a full house in Llewellyn Hall for the finals.

After opening with works by Bach/Busoni, Mozart and Ravel, he moved into what the audience had come for, an intense and flawless Chopin’s “Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor op and his “Grand Waltz Brilliante E Flat major op. 18”, which  elicited gasps from the connoisseurs.

Krupi?ski was a piano champion 10 years ago but now, with first prize in the 2016 San Marino International Piano Competition behind him, he is well on the way to stardom.  

A surprise during the concert was a postscript duo piano performance in Moszkowski’s “Spanish Dances op. 12” with Anderson joining Krupi?ski at the keyboard.

“I’ve always wanted to perform with an international pianist,” the radiant Anderson beamed.

The 3^rd Australian International Chopin Piano Competition, ANU School of music, September 10-17. Details at aicpc.org.au