LONDON • Acclaimed Chinese pianist Fou Ts'ong died on Monday from Covid-19 at the age of 86.
Fou was battling the disease in the United Kingdom, according to his student Kong Jianing, a professor at the Royal College of Music. He revealed that Fou had been in hospital for two weeks.
One of the first Chinese soloists to achieve international stardom, the pianist was born in Shanghai on March 10, 1934. He won the third prize and the special Mazurka Prize at the 1955 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.
He left China on a scholarship that same year and did not return to the country until 1979, when the Cultural Revolution ended.
In the subsequent decades, he visited China frequently for lectures and performances and was appointed an adjunct professor in the piano department of the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music in December 1982.
His father Fu Lei was a prominent writer and translator.
Since settling in London in 1958, Fou had performed throughout the world, earning himself the title of "Piano Poet".
He died in London, according to an announcement by the Alink-Argerich Foundation. The independent classical musical platform was co-founded by Fou's friend, pianist Martha Argerich.
The statement said: "We will always remember him as a great musician with a great personality."
Famed Chinese pianists such as Lang Lang and Li Yundi also paid tribute to the piano great, who was revered for his interpretation of Chopin.
Lang called Fou "the master and the great artist I tremendously respect", while Li said: "May eternal and beautiful music accompany you forever in heaven and you will not feel lonely."
Fou was married thrice. From 1960 to 1969, he was married to Zamira Menuhin, the daughter of American-born violinist Yehudi Menuhin. They have one son.
In the 1970s, he married Hijong Hyun, a daughter of South Korea's Ambassador to Morocco.
His third wife, Patsy Toh, is a China-born, London-based pianist.
Toh also had Covid-19 and was hospitalised. But she was able to return home before Fou died.
