Leeds International Piano Competition Names 2024 Winners

The 24-year-old Canadian pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko has won first place with a £30,000 cash prize

Founded in 1963, the Leeds International Piano Competition is held every three years and is open to pianists under the age of 30 from around the world. 

This year’s £30,000 First Prize and the Dame Fanny Waterman Gold Medal was awarded to Jaeden Izik-Dzurko from Canada.

Izik-Dzurko will also receive concerto engagements with the UK’s Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, a Wigmore Hall debut, recitals across the UK, international tours with the Steinway Prize Winner Concerts Network and Global Music Network, and more.

Second Prize and the Marion Thorpe Silver Medal with £18,000 was awarded to Chinese pianist Junyan Chen, who also won the inaugural £3,000 Alexandra Dariescu Award for an outstanding performance of a work by a woman composer, and the £3,000 Yaltah Menuhin Award for an outstanding performance of chamber music.

Khanh Nhi Luong from Vietnam received Third Prize and the Lady Roslyn Lyons Bronze Medal with £12,000. Chen and Luong will also perform at Wigmore Hall, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Lunchtime Concert Series, and the University of Leeds concert series, among other engagements. 

Fourth Prize was awarded to Kai-Min Chang of Taiwan, who also won the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society Award for the best communicator of contemporary music; the Fifth Prize went to Julian Trevelyan from the UK.

The medici.tv Audience Prize, decided by the public, was awarded to Japanese semi-finalist Tomoharu Ushida, who will receive a future broadcast performance on the media platform.

All finalists performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and chief conductor Domingo Hindoyan at St George’s Hall in Bradford. Additionally, a live EP with selected works from the winning performance will be released on Warner Classics on October 11, 2024. 

Chaired by Dame Imogen Cooper, the 2024 jury comprised Adam Gatehouse, Eleanor Alberga, Ingrid Fliter, Mariam Batsashvili, Pavel Kolesnikov, Sa Chen, Till Fellner and Adrian Brendel.

“It has been extraordinary to witness the remarkable artistry showcased at every stage of the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition,” said Dame Cooper in a press release. “The 24 pianists who performed in Leeds and Bradford exemplify the highest standards of musicianship, and it has been an immense privilege for all of us on the jury to experience it.

“Our aim was to find not just the finest pianist, but the most complete musician, and with Jaeden we have achieved that. He demonstrated exceptional artistic maturity and imagination, remarkable technical command, and a profound ability to captivate and transport the audience through his storytelling and poetry throughout the Competition, culminating in a truly unforgettable final performance. We wish him, and all of the competitors, every success in the future, and have no doubt we will hear from many of them again.”

Footage from the 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition can be viewed here.

Jaeden is a First Prize winner at the 2024 Concours musical international de Montréal, the 2022 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the 2022 Maria Canals International Music Competition, and 20th Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition. He is also a Grand Prize winner at the Federation of Canadian Music Festivals’ National Competition, a winner of Juilliard’s Gina Bachauer Scholarship Competition, and a Second Prize and J.S. Bach Prize winner at the OSM Competition. Jaeden is the recipient of a 2024 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.

Born in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Jaeden is a graduate of The Juilliard School, studying with Yoheved Kaplinsky, and received his Master of Music degree at the University of British Columbia with Corey Hamm. He is also a former student of Ian Parker. He currently studies with Jacob Leuschner at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold and Benedetto Lupo at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.