Hot on the heels of the Cliburn competition in May, the sixteenth Leeds International Pianoforte Competition begins in two weeks' time. 'The Leeds' was founded in 1961 by Marion, Countess of Harewood and Dame Fanny Waterman, its Chairman and Artistic Director. First held in 1963, the competition takes place every three years. Nearly two hundred applications were received for this year's competition, drawn from almost fifty countries (including Bulgaria, France, Finland, Germany, New Zealand and Ukraine).

Seventy-nine entrants have been selected to participate, of which fifty have already achieved top honours at other major international competitions. The 2009 field looks very strong, and includes a number of finalists from this year's Cliburn. Among them is joint Gold Medal winner Haochen Zhang. Just imagine if he wasn't even a semi-finalist in Leeds? An unlikely, but intriguing, thought! He really has no reason to attend now, given the number of worldwide concert dates provided by the Cliburn Foundation.

Other 2009 Cliburn alumni include finalists Evgeni Bozhanov and Di Wu, semi-finalists Ran Dank, Kyu Yeon Kim and Eduard Kunz and quarter-finalist Naomi Kudo. Both competitions demonstrate Asia's increasing dominance of the keyboard: seventeen of this year's Leeds competitors come from China (including three from Taiwan and one from Hong Kong), nine from South Korea, nine from the United States, eight from Russia and six from Japan. The United Kingdom has just one entrant, Sam Armstrong.

The BBC will be the competition's official broadcast partner for 2009 and 2012. This will ensure extensive radio and television coverage, including all twelve semi-final recitals and the two finals nights (September 11th and 12th) when all six finalists will perform with the Hallé, Britain's longest-established symphony orchestra, at Leeds Town Hall. Its Director, Sir Mark Elder, will conduct. All stages of the competition are open to the public: a timetable for each stage can be seen here, and ticket information is available here.

UPDATE:

After three weeks of fierce competition, Sofya Gulyak has become the first woman to win the competition in its forty-eight year history. Twenty-nine-year-old Gulyak, from the Republic of Tatarstan, performed Brahms' First Concerto to claim the Princess Mary Gold Medal and prize money of £15,000. Ukrainian pianist Alexej Gorlatch was awarded the Silver Medal, and Bronze went Italy's Alessandro Taverna.

UPDATE II:

All of the participants' performances can now be heard online, as streamed webcasts. Click on the link in the right-hand column to play the recording you want to hear.