Russia's Yulianna Avdeeva won the prestigious 2010 International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland on Wednesday.

 

Let's join fellow classical music lovers from around the globe that avidly followed the three-week musical marathon.

The Chopin competition, the oldest of its kind in the world, is held every five years in the Polish capital and has built up an especially enthusiastic following in Asia.

A jury that included several world-famous pianists such as Martha Argerich and Kevin Kenner chose Avdeeva, 25, from among 10 finalists after lengthy late-night deliberations at the end of a competition.

Once the judges had finished the closed debate, which decided who the winners were, they descended the National Philharmonic's staircase to a waiting crowd of hundreds. Next, Director of Poland's Grand Theatre and National Opera, Waldemar Dabrowski, announced the winner.

Waldemar Dabrowski said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the winner is Yulianna Avdeeva, Russia. Bravo!"

The announcement was met with a certain amount of surprise but was a popular choice.

Yulianna Avdeeva, winner of 16th Chopin Competition, said, "I still can not believe that this is really happening but I'm very happy, I'm very excited. It's difficult to describe it in words but I am very, very happy to be here and that this all is happening, it's so amazing."

Ingolf Wunder of Austria and Lukas Geniusas of Russia & Lithuania won joint second place, Russia's Daniil Trifonov came third and Bulgaria's Evgeni Bozhanov fourth.