Pianist George Todică impressed the gathered crowd with a beautifully balanced programme in the third section final of the 70th year of the ROSL Annual Music Competition.
This week, Romanian pianist George Todică became the keyboard section final winner of the competition, and the first non-commonwealth citizen to take home the top prize after the competition opened to more nationalities in its 70th year. George Todică’s win saw him taking home £5,000 and claiming the penultimate spot in the Gold Medal Final, which this year will take place at Wigmore Hall in July.
In the 70th year of the Royal Over-Seas League’s Annual Music Competition, four soloists competed in the Keyboard section final. Yuanfan Yang piano, Siyu Sun piano, Joanna Kacperek piano and George Todică piano all put the Steinway D through its paces in the Princess Alexandra Hall. The adjudicators Nicola Eimer, Jayson Gillham, Lucy Parham, Geoff Parkin and Melvyn Tan were given the difficult task of choosing the night’s winner and the soloist who will go onto compete for the Gold Medal and a further £15,000. In the end, the ROSL Award for Keyboard was awarded to George Todică by the panel, three of whom had previously won the award themselves, Nicola Eimer in 2005, Jayson Gillham in 2012 and Melvyn Tan who won the prize on harpsichord in 1976. In the 70th year of the competition, it was brilliant to see the close ties and connections that ROSL still fosters in its prizewinners.
The night's winner George Todică, is a Romanian pianist who studied at the Royal College of Music with Norma Fisher and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Norman Beedie and Jonathan Plowright. George had his Wigmore Hall debut in October 2018 as a Tillett Trust Young Artist, and his recent competition success include first prizes at the Norah Sande Award, ‘Stefano Marizza’ Piano Competition, the Moray Piano Competitionand the Llangollen International Eisteddfod. International performances include at venues including the Trento Philharmonic Hall, the Mozarteum Concert Hall, the Dôme de Pontoise, St. Martin-in-the-fields, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge, Buxton Festival and King’s Lynn Festival.
You can catch up on all the action here:
Yuanfan Yang gave a stunning performance featuring Mozart, Chopin and Bartók
Siyu Sun wowed the audience with works by Marc André Hamelin and Prokofiev
Joanna Kacperek impressed with a performance featuring works by Chopin and Dutilleux
George Todică winner of the Keyboard Section final, wowed the panel and audience alike with works by Scarlatti and Rachmaninov
ROSL Annual Music Competition Section Finals take place each Tuesday 7-9pm at Over-Seas House, Park Place, St James’s Street, London, SW1A 1LR.
You can book for the upcoming section finals here
