The Van Cliburn Foundation has announced the winner of its first-ever YouTube Contest for amateur pianists. Christopher Shih, a gastroenterologist from Maryland, won the contest by popular vote. He will receive an automatic entry to the sixth International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, to be held in the spring of 2011 in Fort Worth, and his application fee will be waived.

Forty-one amateur pianists, ages thirty-five and older, took part in the Cliburn's YouTube Contest. To compete, each contestant uploaded a five- to ten-minute performance video. The Foundation received entries from a number of countries, including Italy, Japan, Mexico, Romania, and the United States. Many contestants filmed themselves at home. More than half created new YouTube accounts and learned the intricacies of uploading a video to the Internet.

The YouTube amateur contest videos received thousands of views, generating scores of comments, YouTube star ratings, and written exchanges between pianists and viewers. At the close of the two-week voting period (May 1-15), 2,389 registered ballots had been cast.

The Cliburn's second YouTube Contest will be held in the summer of 2009.