Friday 16 December 2005
Austrian Cultural Forum

Jury: Deborah Sobol, Raphael Terroni and Alan Walker

1st prize: Mikhail Shilyaev, Royal Northern College of Music
2nd prize: Yoko Misumi, Trinity College of Music
3rd prize: Diana Zavalas, Birmingham Conservatoire

There was an international flavour to the 2005 13th Beethoven Intercollegiate Piano Competition held on 16 December at the Austrian Cultural Forum, Rutland Gate, London, thanks to the hospitality of its Director Dr Johannes Wimmer. The eight competitors, drawn from UK colleges, included pianists from Russia, Japan, Romania, China and Portugal. In the final of three sessions there was a capacity audience to hear the winning performance, that of the accomplished young Russian pianist Mikhail Shilyaev, a postgraduate student at the Royal Northern College of Music, whose masterly performance of the Sonata Op.111 in C minor, followed by the compulsory Bagatelle Op 119/3 formed the climax of the event. Second prize went to the Japanese pianist Yoko Misumi (Trinity College of Music) and third prize to Diana Zavalas (Birmingham Conservatoire) from Romania.

The BPSE’s UK Chairman Malcolm Troup introduced the Competition’s distinguished jury, Deborah Sobol, Raphael Terroni and Alan Walker, the Liszt scholar, who congratulated all the participants on their achievements. He emphasised that while there were qualities to all the performances, the Jury decision on first prize had been unanimous, and their choice was borne out by the Audience Prize choice.