The XV José Iturbi International Piano Competition took place in Valencia, from September 14th to the 30th, 2006. The competition is held every two years and is a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions

World Federation of International Music Competitions

The World Federation of International Music Competitions 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 classical music through public competition...

. Pianist Josu De Solaun Soto

Josu De Solaun Soto

Josu De Solaun is a Spanish classical music pianist and winner of both the First Prize at the I European Union Piano Competition held in Prague, and the First Grand Prize at the XV José Iturbi International Piano Competition. He is the first pianist from Spain to have ever been awarded the coveted...

 was given the First Grand Prize, becoming the first Spanish pianist to be awarded such distinction in the 25 years of the competition's existence. The prize included over
$25,000, recital and orchestral engagements and a recording contract.

Jury

• • 
    Joaquín Soriano
    Joaquín Soriano
    Joaquín Soriano is a Spanish pianist.Trained in Valencia, he was a disciple of Vlado Perlemuter at the Conservatoire National de Paris...
    
     (president)
  • 
    Sulamita Aronovsky
    Sulamita Aronovsky
    Sulamita Aronovsky, born in Lithuania, is a classical pianist and piano teacher who spent her formative years in Russia, moving to London in 1971.Her teachers include Lev Barenboim, Abram Schatzkes, Grigory Ginsburg and Alexander Goldenweiser....
    
    
  • 
    Sergei Dorensky
    Sergei Dorensky
    Sergei Dorensky is a Russian pianist.He was trained under Grigory Ginsburg at the Moscow Conservatory. Dorensky was awarded a Gold Medal at the 5th World Festival of Youth and Students and the 1957 Rio de Janeiro Competition's 2nd Prize, which allowed him to perform through Western Europe and...
    
    
  • 
    Miguel Ángel Herranz
  • 
    Jaime Ingram
  • 
    Mi Kyung Kim
  • 
    Natalie Michailidou
  • 
    Fernando Puchol
  • 
    Leslie Wright (substituting
    
    Jean-Bernard Pommier
    Jean-Bernard Pommier
    Jean-Bernard Pommier , is a French pianist and conductor.- Biography :Pommier studied conducting at the Conservatoire de Paris with Yves Nat, Pierre Sancan and Eugene Bigot....
    
    )
  • 
    Oxana Yablonskaya
    Oxana Yablonskaya
    Oxana Yablonskaya is a Russian pianist who has had an active international performance career since the early 1960s. She began her career in the USSR and, although winning several important competitions in the West, was denied by the Soviet government to accept any performance engagements outside...
    
    

PRIZES

• • FIRST GRAND PRIZE ------
    
    Josu de Solaun
    Josu De Solaun Soto
    Josu De Solaun is a Spanish classical music pianist and winner of both the First Prize at the I European Union Piano Competition held in Prague, and the First Grand Prize at the XV José Iturbi International Piano Competition. He is the first pianist from Spain to have ever been awarded the coveted...
    
    .
  • SECOND PRIZE -------------
    
    Valentina Igoshina
    Valentina Igoshina
    Valentina Igoshina is a Russian classical pianist.-Biography:Valentina Igoshina began studying piano with her mother, and first took lessons at home at the age of four...
    
    .
  • THIRD PRIZE ----------------
    
    Andrei Yaroshinsky.

• • Fourth prize (ex-aequo) -------
    
    Patrick Hemmerle -----
    
    Sofya Melikyan
    Sofya Melikyan
    Sofya Melikyan is an Armenian pianist, born in Yerevan. A pupil of pianist Joaquín Soriano since 1994, she has won some of the most important Spanish piano competitions...
    
    .
  • Fifth prize -----------------------
    
    Natalya Kuchaeva.

• • Best Valencian pianist --------------------------------------------------------
    
    Josu de Solaun.
  • Best Spanish pianist ------------------------------------------------------------
    
    Josu de Solaun.
  • Best interpreter of Spanish contemporary music (ex-aequo) -----
    
    Miguel Ángel Castro -----
    
    Filip Kopachevsky.
  • Best Interpreter of a Beethoven concerto ------------------------------
    
    Patrick Hemmerle.
  • Best Interpreter of a Chopin piece -----------------------------------
    
    Patrick Hemmerle.
  • Best Interpreter of Spanish music ---------------------------------------------
    
    Patrick Hemmerle ---------
    
    Sofya Melikyan

Compositions commissioned for the competition

• • Joan Cerveró - Verdi
  • Carlos Fontcuberta - Après tout [ Performance by Miguel Á. Castro ]
  • Voro García Fernández - Etoiles filantes

First Round

• • 
    Yukiko Akagi
  • 
    Orlando Alonso

} Cathal Breslin

• • 
    Catalina Teodora Butcaru
  • 
    Claudio Carbó Montaner
  • 
    Miguel Ángel Castro
  • 
    Josu de Solaun Soto
  • 
    Dora Deliyska
  • 
    Geraldene Dutroncy
  • 
    Anna Fedorova
  • 
    Sonja Fräki
  • 
    Nikolai Gangnus
  • 
    Irina Georgieva
  • 
    Patrick Hemmerle
  • 
    Dagmar Hofman
  • 
    Kookhee Hong
  • 
    Sue Woon Hyung
  • 
    Valentina Igoshina
  • 
    Kyoko Kashii
  • 
    Marianna Katerelou
  • 
    Ji-Youn Kim
  • 
    Filip Kopachevsky
  • 
    Natalya Kuchaeva
  • 
    Fuyuka Kusa
  • 
    Yoo Soon Lee
  • 
    Wei Chi Lin
  • 
    Maria McGarry
  • 
    Sofya Melikyan
  • 
    Katia Michel Corcoy
  • 
    Salvatore Monzo
  • 
    Yukako Morikawa
  • 
    Eleonora Morozova
  • 
    Inocencio Negrín
  • 
    Theodosia Ntokou
  • 
    Vincenzo Oliva
  • 
    Antonio Ortiz Ramírez
  • 
    Natalya Osenchakova
  • 
    Stefania Passamonte
  • 
    Ekaterina Popova
  • 
    Cameron Roberts
  • 
    Pavel Shatskiy
  • 
    Anna Solovieva-Drubich
  • 
    Inesa Sinkevych
  • 
    Shun Tominaga
  • 
    Xiaofeng Wu
  • 
    Andrei Yaroshinsky
  • 
    Eunkyung Yoon
  • 
    Bojana Zdravkovic
  • 
    Denis Zhdanov

Second Round

• • 
    Yukiko Akagi

} Cathal Breslin

• • 
    Claudio Carbó Montaner
  • 
    Miguel Ángel Castro
  • 
    Josu de Solaun Soto
  • 
    Anna Fedorova
  • 
    Nikolai Gangnus
  • 
    Patrick Hemmerle
  • 
    Valentina Igoshina
  • 
    Filip Kopachevsky
  • 
    Natalya Kuchaeva
  • 
    Fuyuka Kusa
  • 
    Wei Chi Lin
  • 
    Sofya Melikyan
  • 
    Yukako Morikawa
  • 
    Inocencio Negrín
  • 
    Vincenzo Oliva
  • 
    Antonio Ortiz Ramírez
  • 
    Cameron Roberts
  • 
    Pavel Shatskiy
  • 
    Xiaofeng Wu
  • 
    Andrei Yaroshinsky
  • 
    Bojana Zdravkovic
  • 
    Denis Zhdanov

Third Round

• • 
    Yukiko Akagi
  • 
    Claudio Carbó Montaner
  • 
    Miguel Ángel Castro
  • 
    Josu de Solaun Soto
  • 
    Patrick Hemmerle
  • 
    Valentina Igoshina
  • 
    Filip Kopachevsky
  • 
    Natalia Kuchaeva
  • 
    Sofya Melikyan
  • 
    Yukako Morikawa
  • 
    Antonio Ortiz Ramírez
  • 
    Andrei Yaroshinsky

Fourth Round

September 26 and 27, Iturbi Hall, Palau de la Música de Valencia (Valencia Music Palace)

• • 
    Josu de Solaun Soto --- Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
    
    : Concerto for piano and orchestra nº3
  • 
    Patrick Hemmerle --- Ludwig van Beethoven: Concerto for piano and orchestra nº1
  • 
    Valentina Igoshina --- Ludwig van Beethoven: Concerto for piano and orchestra nº4
  • 
    Natalya Kuchaeva --- Ludwig van Beethoven: Concerto for piano and orchestra nº5
  • 
    Sofya Melikyan --- Ludwig van Beethoven: Concerto for piano and orchestra nº3
  • 
    Andrei Yaroshinsky --- Ludwig van Beethoven: Concerto for piano and orchestra nº3

Orquesta de Valencia. Yaron Traub

Yaron Traub

Yaron Traub is an Israeli conductor and pianist.Throughout the 90s he served as Daniel Barenboim's assistant at the Bayreuth Festival and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. After being prized at the 1998 Kirill Kondrashin Competition, Traub has internationally active as a guest conductor before he...

, conductor.

Fifth Round

September 29, Iturbi Hall, Palau de la Música de Valencia (Valencia Music Palace)

• • 
    VALENTINA IGOSHINA --- Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Concerto for piano and orchestra nº1
    Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)
    The Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between November 1874 and February 1875. It was revised in the summer of 1879 and again in December 1888. The first version received heavy criticism from Nikolai Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky's desired pianist....
    
    
  • 
    ANDREI YAROSHINSKY --- Sergei Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
    Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
    The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor, Op. 43 is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is written for solo piano and symphony orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto. The work was written at Villa Senar, according to the score, from July 3 to August 18, 1934...
    
    
  • 
    JOSU DE SOLAUN --- Sergei Rachmaninov: Concerto for piano and orchestra nº2
    Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rachmaninoff)
    The Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, is a concerto for piano and orchestra composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff between the autumn of 1900 and April 1901. The second and third movements were first performed with the composer as soloist on 2 December 1900...
    
    .

Orquesta de Valencia. Yaron Traub

Yaron Traub

Yaron Traub is an Israeli conductor and pianist.Throughout the 90s he served as Daniel Barenboim's assistant at the Bayreuth Festival and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. After being prized at the 1998 Kirill Kondrashin Competition, Traub has internationally active as a guest conductor before he...

, conductor.

External links

• Interview with Josu De Solaun Soto
• Directory of International Piano Competitions