Blogcritics: Exclusive Interview: Illia Ovcharenko, Winner, 2022 Honens International Piano Competition

Blogcritics
By Jon Sobel

Awards are nothing new for Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko. As the winner most recently of the 2022 Honens International Piano Competition, he is in the midst of a 2022–2023 season that includes two Carnegie Hall performances and an international tour.

The Honens competition Laureate must be a “complete artist” who is “a consummate communicator and collaborator, a risk-taking explorer, a dreamer” and who “inspires the heart and engages the intellect.” Though only 21, Ovcharenko has proven his worth by these standards already. (The Honens runners-up were 26 and 27.)

International Piano called Ovcharenko “technically flawless and impeccably musical” and hailed his “stupendous performance of Liszt’s Sonata in B minor.”

Read more here.