# Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition

The Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition (in Spanish: Concurso Internacional de Piano de Santander "Paloma O'Shea") is a piano competition taking place in Santander, Spain. Founded in 1972 by Paloma O'Shea as a national prize, it turned into an international competition in its 2nd edition, and was professionalized in the mid-1970s, being accepted into the World Federation of International Music Competitions in 1976.
Organized by the Albéniz Foundation and chaired by the Infanta Margarita and sponsored by a network of civil service and private companies, it arranges an extensive world tour for the winners, including debuts in auditoriums such as the National Auditorium of Music and the Wigmore Hall and cash prizes. The competition takes place in the Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria.

## The competition

Currently, 20 pianists are accepted into the competition through a demanding shortlist of candidates. The competition consists of a preliminary round after a video-based admission round (pre-auditions in Spain, Paris, New York and Moscow), a recital round, a chamber music round, and final concerto round with a symphony orchestra.

## Guest artists

During the last stages of the competition, the participants perform with guest artists and ensembles. Past ensembles include the London Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, Madrid Symphony Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Takács Quartet, Ysaÿe Quartet, Quiroga Quartet and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and conductors Philippe Entremont, Sergiu Comissiona, Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, and Jesús López Cobos.

## Juries

Members of the jury have included Josep Colom, Gary Graffman, Federico Mompou, Vlado Perlemuter, Joaquín Achúcarro, Aldo Ciccolini, Nikita Magaloff, Paul Badura-Skoda, Hiroko Nakamura, Fou Ts'ong, Eliso Virsaladze, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Rafael Orozco, Philippe Entremont, Alicia de Larrocha, Dmitri Bashkirov, Dmitri Alexeev, Akiko Ebi, Márta Gulyás and Arie Vardi.

## Prize winners

This is a partial listing of prize-winners of the Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition.
| Year | Grand Prize | 2nd prize | 3rd prize | Other |
| 1972 | Josep Colom | Jesús González Alonso | — | Honour Certificates Martín Millán Agustín Vergara |
| 1974 | Ruriko Kikuchi | Jesús González Alonso José M. Martínez Pínzolas | María T. Berrueta de Rubio | Honour Certificates Susan A. Howes Manuel Quesada María H. Revilla |
| 1975 | Marioara Trifan | Peter Bithell | Rebecca A. Penneys | 4th: Silvie Carbonel 5th: Margarita Höhenrieder |
| 1976 | Hüseyin Sermet | Ivan Klánský | Not awarded | 4th: Janina Drath Paulo E. Gori 5th: Nina Hamaguchi 6th: Marie Sprimont 7th: Milan Langer |
| 1977 | Ramzi Yassa | Jeremy Atkins David Allen Wehr | Not awarded | Special Prizes Jean G. Ferlan Kazuko Hayami Marc Ponthus |
| 1978 | Josep Colom | Frédéric Aguessy | Anna Manasarova | 4th prize Andrey Diyev Other prizes Anna Jastrzebska-Quinn Kim Myung Chung Krassimir Taskov |
| 1980 | Not awarded | Barry Douglas | Dan Atanasiu Francesco Nicolosi | Antonio Lavín prize Yumiko Maruyama Ana de los Ríos prize Megumi Umene Conservatory prize Gaswan K. Zerikly |
| 1982 | Marc Raubenheimer | Oleg Volkov | Yves Rault | 4th: Alec Chien 5th: Eric N'Kaoua 6th: Kazuoki Fujii |
| 1984 | Hugh Tinney | José Carlos Cocarelli | Rauf Kasimov | 4th: Fei-Ping Hsu 5th: Daniel Rivera 6th: William Koehler 7th: Nigora Akhmedova 8th: Edward Zilberkant Special prize: Viktor Chernelievsky |
| 1987 | David Allen Wehr | Sergey Yerokhin | Bernd Glemser | 4th: Pavel Nersessian Xiang-Dong Kong 5th: Matthias Fletzberger |
| | Grand Prize | Honour Prize | Honour mentions | Finalist prizes |
| 1990 | Not awarded | Sergey Yerokhin | David Kuijken | Brenno Ambrosini Viktor Lyadov Jean-François Dichamp Claudio Martínez Mehner Semifinalists diploma Isabel Dubuis Mariana Gurkova Oxana Rapita Alexander Sandler Emily White Marta Zabaleta |
| 1992 | Eldar Nebolsin | Xu Zhong | — | Markus Groh Mariana Gurkova Eduardo Monteiro Vadim Rudenko |
| 1995 | Not awarded | Enrico Pompili | — | Armands Ābols Carl Cranmer Miguel Ituarte Polina Leschenko David M. Louie |
| 1998 | Yung Wook Yoo | Jong Hwa Park | Plamena Mangova | Laureate prizes Gustavo Díaz-Jerez Albert Tiu Alexei Volodin |
| 2002 | Not awarded | Boris Giltburg | Ning An Soyeon Lee | Laureate prizes Yunjie Chen Chih-Han Liu Alexander Romanovsky Minsoo Sohn |
| | Grand Prize | 2nd prize | 3rd prize | Audience Prize |
| 2005 | Alberto Nosè | Herbert Schuch | Jie Chen | Alberto Nosè |
| 2008 | Jue Wang | Avan Yu | Shizuka Susanna Salvemini | Avan Yu |
| 2012 0 | Not awarded 0 | Ahn Ah-ruem 0 | Tamar Beraia János Palojtay | Tamar Beraia 0 |
| 2015 | Juan Pérez Floristán | David Jae-Weon Huh | Jianing Kong | Juan Pérez Floristán |
| 2018 | Dmytro Choni | Yutong Sun | Aleksandr Kliushko | Juan Carlos Fernández-Nieto |
| 2022 | Jaeden Izik-Dzurko | Xiaolu Zang | Marcel Tadokoro | Jaeden Izik-Dzurko |

## Special prizes

| Year | Best Spanish contestant | Contemporary music | Chamber music | Spanish music |
| 1978 | | | | María Teresa Berrueta de Rubio |
| 1980 | | Martin Doerrie | | Michiko Tsuda |
| 1982 | | Yves Rault | | Eric N'Kaoua |
| 1984 | Luis Á. Sarobe | William Koehler | William Koehler | Zuzana Paulechová |
| 1987 | Jorge L. Otero | Claire Desert | Claire Desert | Clélia Iruzun |
| 1990 | Claudio Martínez Mehner | David Kuijken | Viktor Lyadov | Mariana Gurkova |
| 1992 | Marta Zabaleta | Laura Mikkola | Tatiana Pavlova | Wi Yu |
| 1995 | | Enrico Pompili | Armen Babakhanian | Carl Cranmer |

## Grant-prizes

| Year | | | |
| 1987 | Xiang-Dong Kong | | |
| 1990 | Jean-François Dichamp | Claudio Martínez Mehner | Giorgia Tomassi |
| 1992 | Carlos Apellániz | Laura Mikkola | Andrei Zheltonog |
| 1995 | Freddy Kempf | Polina Leschenko | |