Aristo Sham, age 29, of Hong Kong, is the 2025 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Gold Medalist, where he also took the Audience Award. A dapper, aristocratic figure on stage, Sham is an engaging presence with a drive to take on the great pieces of the piano repertoire and a natural, infectious spontaneity at the keyboard. You can’t really say he was catapulted to fame by the Cliburn win; Aristo was featured at the age of three in the 2009 documentary The World’s Greatest Musical Prodigies.
