Fou Ts'ong

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Fou Ts'ong (Chinese: 傅聰, pinyin: Fù Cōng) (born 10 March 1934) is a Chinese pianist.

Born in Shanghai in 1934 to a cosmopolitan family of intellectuals (his father was the famous translator Fu Lei). Fou first studied piano with Mario Paci, the Italian founder of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. In 1953, Fou moved to Europe to continue his training at the Warsaw Conservatory, where he amazed his professors with his intuitive grasp of the mazurka rhythm. His mastery was confirmed when he won the special Mazurka Prize at the 1955 Chopin Piano Competition.

Fou had been based in London since 1960, whence he embarked on a performing and teaching career that has taken him throughout the world and been distinguished above all by his authoritative interpretations of Chopin; indeed, Hermann Hesse proclaimed him to be the only true performer of the composer's work. Among Fou's closest friends are the fellow pianists Martha Argerich, Leon Fleisher, and Radu Lupu, who, acknowledging his influence upon their musical development, were "obliged to Fou Ts'ong for all his new ideas and for opening new musical horizons for all of us."