A Canadian piano player who stayed the week with Donna and Gordy Anderson, Carthage, won the 2008 Missouri Southern International Piano Competition last week at the university.

Avan Yu, Vancouver, British Columbia, won a cash award of $15,000, and a debut concert in the Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, New York City, on Oct. 13.

This is the second time Yu has won the competition. In 2002, he won first prize in the junior division of the competition. In 2003, he returned to Joplin and played a solo recital to benefit the MSIPC.

Each time he stayed with the Andersons in Carthage and the two families have become fast friends.

"Part of the reason is that I had such a good experience with my host family (in 2002)," Yu said in an interview last week. "They really tried very hard to make my experience as comfortable as possible and that's really a great help. Last time I did very well in the competition and a large part of that is because of them, they were very supportive of me."

Yu reiterated that feeling in a written release from the piano competition.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to be back in Missouri," Yu said. "Each time I have visited it has been a wonderful experience."

Tian Lu, 22, of China captured the second place award of $10,000. Peggy Pei-zhang Sung, 20, of Hong Kong was the third place winner with a prize of $5,000.  Honorable Mention awards of $2,500 each were given to Fang Zhang, 29, of China and Lishan Xue, 22, of China.

The senior winners were selected from a field of 20 competitors in semifinal and finals rounds, performing before a five-member panel of international judges. Nancy Weems of the University of Houston, Texas, chair of the judging panel said: "The level of playing here is always so high - this competition has a great reputation for that. It inspires us when we go back to teach our students, to see the level of achievement represented here."