The Leeds International Piano Competition has announced the appointment of Sir Stephen Hough as Artistic Director and Chair of the Jury for its 2027 edition, alongside a series of significant changes to the competition’s format and prize structure.
Developed in close collaboration with Hough, the changes place a renewed emphasis on artistic individuality and long-term career development. For the first time in the competition’s history, competitors will be free to choose their own repertoire throughout, with no prescribed requirements. The upper age limit has been raised to 35, one of the highest of any international music competition, acknowledging that artists develop at different rates.
The Leeds prize package is already among the most comprehensive of any music competition, with representation and management, recording deals, concert tours and coaching opportunities offered through partners including Askonas Holt, Warner Classics and Steinway & Sons. The 2027 reforms build on this foundation with an increased First Prize of £50,000, a new Prize-Winners’ Circle Award providing tailored career development support for the Gold Medallist, and new awards including an Encore Prize celebrating imagination and artistic individuality, and a Leeds Piano Trail Prize for a compelling community-focused artistic project to be developed and delivered in 2028.
Hough has assembled a world-class jury including pianists Piotr Anderszewski, Lucas Debargue, Janina Fialkowska, Alexander Gavrylyuk, Orli Shaham, Yeol Eum Son and previous Leeds prize-winner Kathryn Stott, alongside Master of the King’s Music, composer Errollyn Wallen.
Founded in 1963 by Dame Fanny Waterman, the Leeds has helped shape the careers of some of the world’s greatest pianists, among them Murray Perahia, Radu Lupu, Mitsuko Uchida, Sir András Schiff and recent medallists Eric Lu and Jaeden Izik-Dzurko. The 2027 Competition opens with International First Rounds in New York, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Beijing and Seoul between 30 March and 6 April 2027, before the Second Round and Semi-Finals at the Great Hall of the University of Leeds in September 2027 and Concerto Finals at Leeds Town Hall on 17 and 18 September 2027, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and its Principal Conductor Domingo Hindoyan. Applications close on 31 October 2026.