"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"
Joshua Han has won the Australian National Piano Award, with an unusual competition repertoire that included Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.
The 22-year-old student takes home a total of $41,000 in prize money from the prestigious biannual competition held in the Victorian town of Shepparton, including a $33,000 main prize and four other special awards.
Up against 12 other pianists, aged 21 to 35, Han's recitals included Bartók, Beethoven, Chopin, Bach, Prokofiev, Mozart ... and Freddie Mercury (arranged by Alexey Kurbatov).
"I felt this would be true to who I am as a musician, because I do like all kinds of music, and it's important to mix and fuse different kinds of music," he told AAP.
It's a gruelling competition. During the week each finalist is required to play two 45-minute solo recitals, before five are selected for a semi-final performance, and three go on to a grand final.
The $13,000 second prize went to 25-year-old NSW pianist Rio Xiang, and a $7000 third prize to Jude Holland, 21, from Western Australia.
Han is no stranger to the competition stage, receiving his first gold in the Sydney Eisteddfod at age six, and winning several other local and international prizes since.
That includes making the grand final of Australia's Got Talent 2013 with his brother when he was 11, playing a rendition of Pirates of the Caribbean.
But this is the first time Han has been old enough to compete in the national piano award.
Han was four when he began playing piano with his music teacher mother. He practices about four hours a day, depending on exams for his medical degree at Sydney University (that's alongside studying piano performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music).
There's a long list of items to spend the prize money on: sheet music, piano tuning (and replacing broken piano strings), airfares to get to performances, and masterclass fees.
One of two major awards for Australian pianists, the competition has long been regarded as a stepping stone to an international career, award president Darryl Coote said.
But the week-long event costs more than $250,000 to run, even though much of the work involved (an estimated 5000 hours) is done by volunteers.
Significant funding is needed to ensure the national award continues beyond its next iteration in 2026, Coote said.
"Ideally we'd like to establish a fund that we can invest, and the interest of that keeps the wolf from the door," he said.
Han agrees the award is among the most important for Australian pianists, and the line-up is a source of constant chatter across the nation's conservatoriums.
"It's so important that it continues staying alive and flourishing, because it provides such an important opportunity for upcoming Australian musicians to break into the music world," he said.
"There is a great history to it, which I think should not be let go."
