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 Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Founded in 1972 by

Paloma O'Shea Paloma O'Shea Artiñano, 1st Marchioness of O'Shea (born 19 February 1936) is a Spanish piano, pianist, Patronage, patron of the arts, founder and current president of the Reina Sofía School of Music, and founder and president of the Albéniz F ...

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 The World Federation of International Music Competitions (WFIMC) is an organization based in Geneva, Switzerland that maintains a network of the internationally recognized organisations that aim to discover the most promising young talents in classi ...

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 The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...

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 The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

Dresden Philharmonic The Dresdner Philharmonie (Dresden Philharmonic) is a German symphony orchestra based in Dresden. Its principal concert venue is the '' Kulturpalast''. The orchestra also performs at the Kreuzkirche and the Frauenkirche Dresden. It receive ...

, Spanish National Orchestra,

Madrid Symphony Orchestra Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Northern Sinfonia,

Scottish Chamber Orchestra The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) is an Edinburgh-based UK chamber orchestra. One of Scotland's five National Performing Arts Companies, the SCO performs throughout Scotland, including annual tours of the Scottish Highlands and Islands and So ...

RTVE Symphony Orchestra The RTVE Symphony Orchestra (), also known as the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra is a Spanish radio orchestra servicing (RTVE), the national broadcasting corporation. Established in February 1965, the orchestra is based at i ...

, Takács Quartet, Ysaÿe Quartet, Quiroga Quartet and the

Vienna Chamber Orchestra The Vienna Chamber Orchestra (Wiener Kammer Orchester, or WKO) is an Austrian chamber orchestra based at the Vienna Konzerthaus. History The WKO was founded in 1946, and its first artistic directors were Franz Litschauer, Heinrich Hollreiser, P ...

and conductors

Philippe Entremont Philippe Entremont (born 7 June 1934) is a French classical pianist and conducting, conductor. His recordings as a pianist include concertos by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Tchaikovsky, Maurice Ravel, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Rachmaninoff, Camille Sain ...

Sergiu Comissiona Sergiu Comissiona (Hebrew: סרג'ו קומיסיונה; June 16, 1928 – March 5, 2005) was a Romanian- Israeli- American conductor and violinist. Biography Early life Born in Bucharest, Romania in a Jewish family, he began violin studies at ...

, Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, and Jesús López Cobos.

Juries

Members of the jury have included Josep Colom, Gary Graffman,

Federico Mompou Frederic Mompou Dencausse (), or Federico Mompou (16 April 1893 – 30 June 1987), was a Spanish composer and pianist. Life Early years Mompou was born in Barcelona to the lawyer Frederic Mompou and his wife, Josefina Dencausse, who was of ...

Vlado Perlemuter Vladislas "Vlado" Perlemuter (26 May 1904 – 4 September 2002) was a Lithuanian-born French pianist and teacher. Biography Vladislas (Vlado) Perlemuter was born to a Polish Jewish family, the third of four sons, in Kovno, Russia (now Kaunas in L ...

, Joaquín Achúcarro,

Aldo Ciccolini Aldo Ciccolini (; 15 August 1925 – 1 February 2015) was an Italian pianist who became a naturalized French citizen in 1971. Biography Aldo Ciccolini was born in Naples. His father, whose family bore the title of Marquis in the city of Macera ...

Nikita Magaloff Nikita Magaloff (; 26 December 1992) was a Georgia (country), Georgian-Russian pianist. He was born in Saint Petersburg to a Georgian noble family named Maghalashvili. Magaloff and his family left Russia in 1918 for Finland. His musical interes ...

, Paul Badura-Skoda, Hiroko Nakamura, Fou Ts'ong,

Eliso Virsaladze Eliso Virsaladze ( ka, ელისო ვირსალაძე; born September 14, 1942) is a Georgian pianist. Biography She was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR. Her father Constantine Virsaladze was a prominent doctor and scientist, so wa ...

, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Rafael Orozco,

Alicia de Larrocha Alicia de Larrocha y de la Calle (23 May 192325 September 2009) was a Spanish pianist and composer. She was considered one of the great piano legends of the 20th century. Reuters called her "the greatest Spanish pianist in history", ''Time'' " ...

Dmitri Bashkirov Dmitri Aleksandrovich Bashkirov (; November 1, 1931 – March 7, 2021) was a Russian pianist and academic teacher. Trained in his hometown Tbilisi and Moscow, he began an international career as a soloist when he won the Marguerite Long Piano Co ...

, Dmitri Alexeev, Akiko Ebi,

Márta Gulyás Márta Gulyás (born 1953 in Gyula, Hungary) is a classical pianist and a professor of piano and chamber music. Biography Márta Gulyás studied piano at the Liszt Ferenc University for Music in Budapest with Erzsébet Tusa and István Lantos. In ...

and Arie Vardi.

Prize winners

This is a partial listing of prize-winners of the Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition.

Special prizes

Grant-prizes

References

{{Reflist

External links

Albeniz Foundation

Paloma O'Shea Santander Piano Competition
Culture of Cantabria Albéniz Foundation Music competitions in Spain Piano competitions