Taylor Academy Student Eric Guo Wins International Competition

Published on August 17, 2018

Award-winning Taylor Academy student Eric Guo has picked up another prize, this time at a competition in China. 

The 15-year-old pianist won the junior division of the 11th International Frederick Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, held in Foshan, China, from August 7–17, 2018. As a result of this achievement, he earned a cash prize of $7,000 USD.

Eric is only the second Canadian – and the second student of The Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists – to receive this honour. The biannual International Frederick Chopin Competition for Young Pianists is one of the world's most prestigious competitions of its kind, and counts among its past winners superstar artists Daniil Trifonov and Yuja Wang.

A piano student since the age of four, Eric is on a full-tuition scholarship at The Taylor Academy in the studio of Li Wang. Among his many accomplishments are first prizes at the Kaufman International Piano Competition in 2017 and the Canadian Music Competition in 2016. In July 2018, Eric joined fellow Academy pianist J J Bui at the Toronto Summer Music Festival for the aptly-named concert Stars of the Future. 

Eric is the latest in a series of Taylor Academy students to achieve excellence in recent months. Catherine He won the Geringas Memorial Scholarship Competition in June 2018, while in the same month Raymond Huang won a Grand Prize at the Canadian Music Competition for earning the highest mark among participants aged 15 to 18.

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