Leeds International Piano Competition

Piano competition in Leeds, England every 3 years

Award

Leeds International Piano Competition

Awarded for| Exceptional piano performance
Location| Great Hall of the University of Leeds
Leeds Town Hall
(St George's Hall, Bradford in 2024)
Country| United Kingdom
Presented by| Leeds International Piano Competition
Formerly called| Leeds International Pianoforte Competition
First awarded| 1963; 61 years ago (1963)
Website| www.leedspiano.com

The Leeds International Piano Competition, informally known as The Leeds and formerly the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition,[1][2] is an international piano competition which takes place every three years in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1961 by Marion, Countess of Harewood, Dame Fanny Waterman and Roslyn Lyons, with the first competition being held in 1963. Waterman was the chair and artistic director up to the 2015 competition when Paul Lewis and Adam Gatehouse became Co-Artistic Directors.

The first round of the competition takes place internationally and in 2021 went 'virtual' when 63 pianists were recorded in 17 international locations and the Jury deliberated online, in order to circumvent the various impacts of Covid. The 2nd round, semi-finals and finals take place in the Great Hall of the University of Leeds and in Leeds Town Hall and in 2018 & 2021 were streamed to a large global audience through medici.tv, achieving over 4.7 million views and listens through multiple channels and platforms, including the BBC, Amadeus.tv (China), Classic FM and Mezzo.tv.

The 21st competition took place 11–21 September 2024[3] with the final round in St George's Hall, Bradford while Leeds Town Hall underwent major refurbishment.[4]

## History

[edit]

2009 competition finals

The competition was first held in September 1963 when the young British pianist, Michael Roll, became the First Prizewinner. It joined the World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC) in 1965.[2] After the 1996 competition, there was a four-year break before the 2000 competition, to align with the turn of the millennium. Competitors were formerly housed at Tetley Hall, a residence hall at the University of Leeds, which closed in 2006 and are still housed in University residences throughout the competition. The University of Leeds is the Principal Partner of the competition and has supported it since its inception. The BBC has broadcast all Competitions since 1966 on television and radio. In 2018 the Competition was streamed live online for the first time with medici.tv.

The list of eminent past Competition winners includes Radu Lupu and Murray Perahia. The roll call of other Competition finalists is equally illustrious as that of the winners and includes Mitsuko Uchida and Sir Andras Schiff (1975), Peter Donohoe (1981), Louis Lortie (1984), Lars Vogt (1990), Denis Kozhukhin (2006) and Louis Schwizgebel (2012) when Federico Colli won the Gold Medal. Sofya Gulyak was the first female first prize winner, awarded in 2009.[5]

2021 winner, Alim Beisembayev receiving his Dame Fanny Waterman Gold Medal

Dame Fanny Waterman was the competition's Chair and Artistic Director until her retirement after the 2015 event and she remained Honorary Life President until her death in 2020. She was replaced as artistic director by Paul Lewis (Jury Chair for 2018) and Adam Gatehouse. Gatehouse is now the competition's sole Artistic Director and was joined by Imogen Cooper as Chair of the Jury in 2021.

## 2018 Competition

[edit]

The 2018 competition marked a major refresh to the competition structure:

* The preliminary round of the competition took place internationally for the first time in Berlin, New York and Singapore.
* The semi-finalists offered two different recitals (one was chosen by the jury) and included the introduction of chamber music in a new collaborative musicianship feature, working with Bjørg Lewis (cello), Jack Liebeck (violin) and the Elias String Quartet.
* The concerto finale included five finalists in concert with the Hallé orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner. Finalists offered two concertos, one "classically oriented"[6] and one from the Romantic period or later, and one was selected for performance by the jury.
* Three main prizes were awarded, as well as the Terence Judd Hallé Orchestra Prize and a new medici.tv audience prize, which was voted for online.
* A festival programme in Leeds was introduced to bring The Leeds out of the concert hall and into the community.
* Medici.tv livestreamed all rounds which remain free to view on the competition microsite.

A public piano on Cookridge Street, Leeds designed by artist Rosie Vohra

The prize benefits were redesigned to support the career development of the prizewinners and include mentoring by Paul Lewis and other notable pianists, as well as artist management with Askonas Holt, a recording deal with Warner Classics and a series of international engagements.

A festival programme of masterclasses, talks, educational events and other activities also took place during the competition, including an appearance by Alfred Brendel, free piano lessons in the world's Smallest Concert Hall (a converted shipping container) and the creation of The Leeds Piano Trail across Leeds city centre (pianos for the public to use), supported by The Leeds BID.[7][6]

## Orchestra

[edit]

Alim Beisembayev with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Manze at Leeds Town Hall

The concerto finals have been supported by a number of major UK orchestras over the years including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé. Sir Mark Elder has conducted the Hallé Orchestra at all the finals since 2003, with the exception of 2018 when the conductor was Edward Gardner. Other conductors with long associations with the Competition have included Sir Charles Groves and Sir Simon Rattle. The Terrence Judd Hallé Orchestra Prize, selected and awarded by the orchestra to one of the six finalists, was introduced in 2012. A new partnership with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra was announced in 2019 for the 20th Edition in 2021.

* Hallé Orchestra with Sir Mark Elder (2003–2018)
* City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle (1987–2000)
* BBC Philharmonic with Sir Vernon Handley (1984)
* Royal Liverpool Philharmonic with Sir John Pritchard and Sir Charles Groves (1963–1975) & Andrew Manze (2021)

## Prize winners

[edit]

Year  | 1st place  | 2nd place  | 3rd place  | 4th place  | 5th place  | 6th place

|
|
|
|
|
|

2024  |  Jaeden Izik-Dzurko |  Junyan Chen[a] |  Khanh Nhi Luong |  Kai-Min Chang |  Julian Trevelyan | —
2021  |  Alim Beisembayev[b] |  Kaito Kobayashi[a] |  Ariel Lanyi |  Dmytro Choni |  Thomas Kelly | —
2018  |  Eric Lu[c] |  Mario Häring[a] |  Xinyuan Wang[b] | — (Finalists:  Aljoša Jurinić,  Anna Geniushene)
2015 |  Anna Tsybuleva |  Heejae Kim[c] |  Vitaly Pisarenko |  Drew Petersen |  Tomoki Kitamura |  Yun Wei
2012  |  Federico Colli |  Louis Schwizgebel |  Jiayan Sun |  Andrejs Osokins |  Andrew Tyson[c] |  Jayson Gillham
2009  |  Sofya Gulyak |  Alexej Gorlatch |  Alessandro Taverna |  David Kadouch |  Rachel Cheung |  Jianing Kong
2006  |  Sunwook Kim |  Andrew Brownell  |  Denis Kozhukhin |  Alice Wong  |  Sung-hoon Kim |  Grace Fong
2003  |  Antti Siirala |  Evgenia Rubinova |  Yuma Osaki  |  Igor Tchetuev  |  Chiao-Ying Chang  | / Sodi Braide
2000  |  Alessio Bax |  Davide Franceschetti |  Severin von Eckardstein |  Cristiano Burato  |  Ashley Wass |  Tatiana Kolesova
1996  |  Ilya Itin |  Roberto Cominati |  Aleksandar Madžar |  Sa Chen |  Armen Babakhanian |  Ekaterina Apekisheva
1993  |  Ricardo Castro  |  Leon McCawley |  Mark Anderson |  Filippo Gamba  |  Maxim Philippov |  Margarita Shevchenko
1990  |  Artur Pizarro |  Lars Vogt |  Éric Le Sage |  Balázs Szokolay |  Haesun Paik  |  Andrei Zheltonog
1987  |  Vladimir Ovchinnikov |  Ian Munro |  Noriko Ogawa |  Boris Berezovsky |  Hugh Tinney |  Marcantonio Barone
1984  |  Jon Kimura Parker |  Ju Hee Suh  |  Junko Otake  |  Louis Lortie |  David Buechner |  Emma Tahmizian
1981  |  Ian Hobson |  Wolfgang Manz |  Bernard d'Ascoli |  Daniel Blumenthal |  Christopher O'Riley |  Peter Donohoe
1978  |  Michel Dalberto |  Diana Kacso |  Lydia Artymiw |  Ian Hobson |  Kathryn Stott |  Etsuko Terada
1975  |  Dmitri Alexeev |  Mitsuko Uchida | Joint 3rd prize:[1]
András Schiff
Pascal Devoyon | Joint 4th prize:[1]
Michael Houstoun
Myung-whun Chung | —
1972  |  Murray Perahia |  Craig Sheppard |  Eugen Indjic | —
1969  |  Radu Lupu |  Georges Pludermacher |  Arthur Moreira Lima |  Boris Petrushansky |  Anne Queffélec | —
1966  |  Rafael Orozco | Joint 2nd prize:
Viktoria Postnikova
Semyon Kruchin |  Alexey Nasedkin[1] |  Jean-Rodolphe Kars | —
1963  |  Michael Roll |  Vladimir Krainev |  Sebastien Risler |  Armenta Adams | —

## See also

[edit]

* List of classical music competitions

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ a b c Winner of the Yaltah Menuhin Award.[8]
2. ^ a b Winner of the medici.tv Audience Award.[8]
3. ^ a b c Winner of the Terence Judd–Hallé Orchestra Prize.[9][10][8]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d "Previous Winners". Leeds International Pianoforte Competition 2006. Archived from the original on 1 July 2007. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
2. ^ a b "Leeds International Piano Competition". World Federation of International Music Competitions. 20 February 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
3. ^ "The Leeds International Piano Competition". app.getacceptd.com. Acceptd. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
4. ^ "Bradford to host next Leeds International Piano Competition Finals". Leeds International Piano Competition. 25 May 2023. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
5. ^ Andrew Clements (14 September 2016), "Leeds International Piano competition final – first prize for Anna Tcybuleva, not the obvious choice", The Guardian, retrieved 3 January 2017
6. ^ a b Paul Lewis (18 October 2016), "Paul Lewis: how we're transforming 'the Leeds' to nurture tomorrow's pianists", The Guardian, retrieved 2 January 2017
7. ^ 'New Vision' announced for 2018 Competition, Leeds International Piano Competition, 18 October 2016, archived from the original on 3 January 2017, retrieved 2 January 2017
8. ^ a b c "And the Winner Is… | Leeds International Piano Comp". www.leedspiano.com. Retrieved 22 September 2018.
9. ^ James McCarthy (18 September 2012), "Leeds International Piano Competition 2012 Winner Announced", Gramophone, retrieved 3 January 2017
10. ^ Heejae Kim piano, Leeds International Piano Competition, 5 April 2016, archived from the original on 3 January 2017, retrieved 3 January 2017

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leeds International Piano Competition.

* Official website
* The Leeds 2021 medici.tv channel
* The Leeds 2018 medici.tv channel
* Directory of International Piano Competitions
* World Federation of International Music Competitions – listing

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany
* United States

Other|

* MusicBrainz series