# International Ettore Pozzoli Piano Competition

The International Ettore Pozzoli Piano Competition, for tradition and amount of prize, is one of the oldest and most prestigious piano competitions in the world, taking place in Seregno, Italy since 1959 and held every 2 years.

## The Story

The contest was founded by Gina Gambini, widow of the Italian pianist, Maestro Ettore Pozzoli, wishing to honour the memory of her husband by giving musicians from all over the world an opportunity to show their artistic skills. Up to now, more than 1.500 pianists coming from all over the world have participated in the 25 editions of the competition that has taken place in the city in northern Italy. In 1959, the first pianist to win the International Ettore Pozzoli Piano Competition was Maestro Maurizio Pollini, one of the major pianists in the world. The last edition (XXVI°) took place in September 2009, celebrating the 50th year of the Competition foundation and was won by the young American pianist, Maestro Christopher Falzone.

## Prize winners

| 1959 | 1st prize | 2nd prize (ex-a.) |
| | Maurizio Pollini | Gino Brandi |
| | | Wally Rizzardo |
| 1961 | 1st prize (ex-a.) | 2nd prize |
| | Pier Narciso Masi | France Redon |
| | Fabio Peressoni |
| 1963 | 1st prize | 2nd Prize |
| | Laura De Fusco | Alberto Colombo |
| 1965 | 1st prize | 2nd prize (ex-a.) |
| | François-Joël Thiollier | Yoshiya Iwamoto |
| | | Riccardo Risaliti |
| 1967 | 1st prize | 2nd prize (ex-a.) |
| | not awarded | Speidel Sontraud |
| | | Ewa Wolak |
| 1969 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | Franco Angeleri | Antonio Bacchelli |
| | Anna Maria Cigola |
| 1971 | 1st prize | 2nd prize (ex-a.) |
| | Pierre Réach | Vincenzo Balzani |
| | | Tajka Hiroshi |
| 1973 | 1st prize | 2nd prize (ex-a.) |
| | Raimondo Campisi | Noemi Gobbi |
| | | Michael Krist |
| 1975 | 1st prize | 2nd prize (ex-a.) |
| | Daniel Rivera | Boris Bloch |
| | | Roberto Cappello |
| 1977 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | Pietro Rigacci | Elisabeth Rigollet |
| 1979 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | Rolf Plagge | Giovanni Umberto Battel |
| 1981 | 1st prize | 2nd prize (ex-a.) |
| | Hüseyin Sermet | Barry Douglas |
| | | Megumi Umene |
| 1983 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | Hugh Tinney | Boris Slutsky |
| 1985 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | Klárá Würtz | Mariana Gurkova |
| 1987 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | Seizo Azuma | not awarded |
| 1989 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | William Stephenson | Andrew Wilde |
| 1991 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | not awarded | Anna Emilova Stoytcheva |
| 1993 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | Maria Stembolskaya | Sergei Yerokhin |
| 1995 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | not awarded | Dmitri Krivonos |
| 1997 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | not awarded | Paolo Wolfango Cremonte |
| 1999 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | Filippo Gamba | Lorenzo Di Bella |
| 2001 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | not awarded | Denys Proshayev |
| 2003 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | not awarded | Fumio Kawamura |
| 2005 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | Martin Cousin | Yoonjung Han |
| 2007 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | Alexandre Pirojenko | Victor Stanislavsky |
| 2009 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | Christopher Falzone | Domenico Monaco |
| 2011 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | Alexey Chernov | Alexander Yakovlev |
| 2015 | 1st prize(ex-a.) | 2nd prize |
| | Anastasia Rizikov | not awarded |
| | Yoshito Numasawa |
| 2017 | 1st prize | 2nd prize |
| | not awarded | Axel Trolese |
| | | Elizaveta Kliuchereva |
| 2019 | 1st prize | 2nd prize (ex-a.) |
| | Evgeny Konnov | Andrei Leshkin |
| | | Elia Cecino |
| 2021 | 1st prize | 2nd prize (ex-a.) |
| | not awarded | Yuto Takezawa |
| | | Diego Petrella |
| 2023 | 1st prize | 2nd prize (ex-a.) |
| | not awarded | Vladimir Skomorokhov |
| | | Riito Shimata |