First Woman to Win the Leeds Piano Competition

On September 13, Russia’s Sofya Gulyak was awarded the 1st prize and the Princess Mary Gold Medal at the Sixteenth Leeds International Piano Competition – the first woman to achieve this distinction in the history of the competition.
She returned to Leeds on Saturday 14 November to perform Mozart Piano Concerto No 18 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. As well as the prestigious Leeds competition, Sofya Gulyak has won prizes at the William Kapell International piano competition (USA), Maj Lind Helsinki International piano competition and the Tivoli piano competition (Copenhagen). She studied at Kazan’s Special Music College for gifted children, Kazan State Conservatoire,
Italy’s Piano Academy and the Royal College of Music in London.

Results:
http://www.leedspiano.com/Home/Results.aspx

Listen to webcasts:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/pianocompetition/

Sofya plays Liszt’s Campanella from Long Thibaud Piano Competition 2007: