Only one Brit in Leeds Piano Competition

Only one Brit in Leeds Piano Competition

News

norman lebrecht

May 15, 2024

The 24 competitors were announced today, 9 of them female.

Dismally, only one British candidate was considered worthy. It’s a clear verdict on the present state of UK music education.

Here’s the list:
Kai-Min Chang, 23, Taiwan

Xuehong Chen, 24, China

Junyan Chen, 23, China

Woo Young Cho, 23, South Korea

Dina Ivanova, 29, Russia

Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, 24, Canada

Carter Johnson, 27, Canada

Elizaveta Kliuchereva, 24, Russia

Shinyoung Lee, 26, South Korea

Pedro López Salas, 26, Spain

Khanh Nhi Luong, 27, Vietnam

Philipp Lynov, 25, Russia

Nicholas Margarit, 24, Australia

Nagino Maruyama, 24, Japan

Callum McLachlan Page, 25, UK (pic)

Jan Nikovich, 22, Croatia

Tianlin Shen, 25, China

Shunshun Tie, 23, China

Tomoharu Ushida, 24, Japan

Gabriel Yeo, 25, Germany

Sung Ho Yoo, 27, South Korea

Tiankai Yu, 24, China

Angie Zhang, 28, US

Ryan Zhu 20, Canada

Comments

  • Irony says:

    And of the course “the Brit” doesn’t even study in UK, he studies in Cologne & Salzburg

    • ENRIQUE SANCHEZ says:

      Born into a family of musicians, he first started piano lessons with his father at the age of 7, and entered Chetham’s School of Music at age 11, where he studied with Russian pianist and pedagogue Dina Parakhina.

  • Observing2 says:

    There are simply too many competitions in the world. There can’t be that many hidden geniuses left frankly. The world does not need yet another competition winner.

    Very much in favour of banning all competitions for ten years. Would do the music world a huge favour.

  • 꽁 머니 says:

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  • Lucille says:

    Where are they going to have the final? Leeds Town Hall has been moth-balled for a few years now, and there’s a shameful lack of any other large concert venue in the city.

    • Guessed again says:

      The University of Leeds Great Hall is hosting the semi-finals, and the Final will be in St George’s Hall, Bradford (they share an airport so why not a competition?). At least Leeds Town Hall’s taken the opportunity to refurbish the Gray and Davison built Spark and Smart designed Victorian Organ during the building’s restoration. It’s a pity Middlesbrough Council didn’t do the same for the William Hill & Son’s Organ when it was granted National Heritage Funds to refurb the Town Hall between 2016-18. This was despite having had a separate Organ Restoration appeal over 15 years ago, which restoration never happened and the fund disappeared into a black hole. Over time and different administrations, records have been lost and there’s no ‘institutional memory’ about it.

  • Julian Woods says:

    What a depressing and sad indictment on music education in this country

    • Stephen McIntyre says:

      Well actually there is also only one from Germany, and none from France,, Italy, Austria, Holland. It is just the luck of the draw, not a sad indictment of all these countries

  • Donna Conspiracy says:

    15 of them male

  • Truthbetold says:

    And not even a particularly good one…

  • Robert L says:

    It’s also a sad comment on the state of classical music in the United States with only one who qualified.

  • Carlos says:

    Where are the Europeans? Shocking

  • Guest says:

    Certainly a tantalizing title, however I’m aware that some currently study in London. Please research more thoroughly

  • GuestX says:

    Only one German, only one from the USA. No Italians, Frenchmen, Finns … What a shocking state musical education must be in those countries, and in the other unrepresented hundreds.

  • Lipatti fan says:

    Mr Lebrecht is mistaken. Julian Trevelyan is also in the competition, and he is British!

  • Nick2 says:

    That fully half the number are Asian and almost certainly two other participants are of Asian descent surely illustrates yet again where the new interest in western classical music lies.

  • Ludwig's Van says:

    Folks, stop politicizing! Competitions are about exceptional talent and superior music-making – so neither where you are born nor your gender has anything to do with it.

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