South Korean teen who won 2022 Cliburn competition in Fort Worth signs with record label

A year after he became the youngest person to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Yunchan Lim has been signed to the Decca Classics record label, according to a news release.

Lim, a 19-year-old from South Korea, received the largest standing ovation at the Cliburn since Olga Kern’s Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in 2001 (and one of the longest standing ovations in Cliburn history) last year, when he was 18.

The runners-up were Russian pianist Anna Geniushene, 31, with the silver medal, and Ukrainian pianist Dmytro Choni, 28, with bronze.

After “following him across the globe for his much sought-after signature,” including trips to his concerts in Seoul, New York, London, Rome, Tokyo, Paris and Amsterdam, the label announced Wednesday he’d agreed to sign.

His performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 brought conductor Marin Alsop to tears on the stage and has been watched more than 12 million times on YouTube. He has already released a live recording of his rendition of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto with the Gangju Symphony Orchestra. Now, the record label plans to release his debut under its name next spring.

Before the album is released, Lim is slated to perform at Carnegie Hall on Feb. 21, and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Ochestre de Paris and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.