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.[1] 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.[2]
Organized by the Albéniz Foundation and chaired by the Infanta Margarita and sponsored by a network of civil service and private companies,[3] it arranges an extensive world tour for the winners,[4] including debuts in auditoriums such as the National Auditorium of Music and the Wigmore Hall and cash prizes.[5] The competition takes place in the Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria.[6]
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.
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.[7]
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.
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 | — |
| |
| 1974 |  Ruriko Kikuchi | Jesús González Alonso José M. Martínez Pínzolas | María T. Berrueta de Rubio |
| |
| 1975 |  Marioara Trifan |  Peter Bithell | Rebecca A. Penneys | 4th:  Silvie Carbonel 5th: Margarita Höhenrieder | |
| 1976 |  Hüseyin Sermet | Ivan Klánský | Not awarded | 4th:  Janina Drath
5th: | |
| 1977 |  Ramzi Yassa | Jeremy Atkins David Allen Wehr | Not awarded |
| |
| 1978 | Josep Colom | Frédéric Aguessy | Anna Manasarova |
| |
| 1980 | Not awarded | Barry Douglas |  Dan Atanasiu Francesco Nicolosi |
| |
| 1982 |  Marc Raubenheimer | Oleg Volkov | Yves Rault | 4th:  Alec Chien 5th: Eric N'Kaoua 6th: Kazuoki Fujii | |
| 1984 |  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 | |
| 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
| |
| 1992 |  Eldar Nebolsin | Xu Zhong | — | Markus Groh Mariana Gurkova Eduardo MonteiroVadim 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 |
| |
| 2002 | Not awarded | Boris Giltburg | Ning An Soyeon Lee |
| |
| Grand Prize | 2nd prize | 3rd prize | Audience Prize | ||
| 2005 | Herbert Schuch | Jie Chen | Alberto Nosè | ||
| Avan Yu | Shizuka Susanna Salvemini | Avan Yu | |||
| 2012 | Not awarded | Ahn Ah-ruem |  Tamar Beraia János Palojtay | Tamar Beraia | |
| 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 |
| 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 | Mariana Gurkova | |||
| 1992 | Marta Zabaleta | Tatiana Pavlova | Wi Yu | |
| 1995 | Carl Cranmer | |||
| Year | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | |||
| 1990 | Jean-François Dichamp | Giorgia Tomassi | |
| 1992 | Carlos Apellániz | Andrei Zheltonog | |
| 1995 | |||
