Well deserved: Hastings International Piano Competition winners

Fumiya Koido & the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hastings International Piano Competition (Photo John Cole)

The Hastings International Piano Competition reached its climax last weekend with a final spread over two days (1 & 2 March 2019) where the six finalists each played a concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. For this year's competition there were originally 176 entrants from 26 countries, aged between 18 and 30, of whom 50 were invited to play at Hastings, where the focus of the competition is on concerto playing so that the first and second rounds are require the entrants to play concertos.

First prize winner this year was Fumiya Koido from Japan who gave a stunning performance of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major and received a cash prize of £15,000 plus future concerto performance engagements with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and additional performance opportunities in both the UK and the USA.

Second Prize Winner was Maxim Kinasov from Russia, who gave an impressive performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 in B flat minor Op.23 and received a cash prize of £7,000. Kinasov also received the special ‘Orchestra Prize’ voted for by players of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and in addition will receive future performance engagements.

Additional prize winners were Third Prize: Eric Guo - Canada, Fourth Prize: Yuanfan Yang - UK, Fifth Prize: Sylvia Jiang - New Zealand, Sixth Prize: Alexander Yau - Australia. The Special Prize of £1,000 Awarded to a British Contestant reaching the Final went to Yuanfan Yang.