<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"><FONT BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">Dear friends,<BR>
<BR>
It was a notable night for Korea at the finals of the <BR>
Leeds International Pianoforte Competition 2006.<BR>
<BR>
Held triennially, this is one of the world's leading prizes.<BR>
Past winners include Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, <BR>
Dmitri Alexeev, and Artur Pizarro.<BR>
<BR>
To those illustrious names, add <B>Sunwook Kim</B>:<BR>
at 18 the youngest ever winner. You can hear his<BR>
winning rendition of Brahms' first piano concerto<BR>
in D minor online for the next six days at<BR>
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio3_aod.shtml?radio3/performanceon3_fri<BR>
<BR>
Nor is this all. Another Korean, Sung-Hoon Kim,<BR>
placed fifth with Mozart's C minor concerto (K491).<BR>
<BR>
Past Leeds finalists include Myung-whun Chung:<BR>
joint fourth in 1975, when Mitsuko Uchida came second<BR>
and Andras Schiff third. In 1984 Ju Hee Suh came second,<BR>
while Haesun Paik placed fifth in 1990.<BR>
<BR>
To my shame, neither of these Kims was known to me.<BR>
I look forward to hearing a great deal more of them.<BR>
<BR>
Bravi!<BR>
Aidan<BR>
<BR>
AIDAN FOSTER-CARTER<BR>
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University <BR>
Home address: 17 Birklands Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD18 3BY, UK <BR>
tel: +44(0) 1274 588586 (alt) +44(0) 1264 737634 mobile: +44(0) 7970 741307 <BR>
fax: +44(0) 1274 773663 ISDN: +44(0) 1274 589280<BR>
Email: afostercarter@aol.com (alt) afostercarter@yahoo.com website: www.aidanfc.net<BR>
[Please use @aol; but if any problems, please try @yahoo too - and let me know, so I can chide AOL]<BR>
<BR>
__________________________</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"><BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"><BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"><BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0">http://www.leedspiano.com/<BR>
<BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.leedspiano.com/graphics/typo1.gif" WIDTH="373" HEIGHT="62" BORDER="0" DATASIZE="6323"><BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"> <BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.leedspiano.com/graphics/date1.gif" WIDTH="373" HEIGHT="30" BORDER="0" DATASIZE="1906"><BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"> <BR>
<BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.leedspiano.com/graphics/swk.jpg" WIDTH="247" HEIGHT="246" BORDER="0" DATASIZE="15434"><BR>
The winner, Sunwook Kim<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"><B>Results</B><BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"><BR>
<IMG SRC="http://www.leedspiano.com/graphics/blank.gif" WIDTH="350" HEIGHT="1" BORDER="0" DATASIZE="43"><BR>
<B><BR>
</B>http://www.leedspiano.com/res.html<B><BR>
<BR>
Results of the 15th Leeds International Pianoforte Competition</B><BR>
<BR>
1st prize, The Princess Mary Gold medal and £12,000:<BR>
Sunwook KIM, 18; from Seoul, Republic of Korea.<BR>
<BR>
2nd prize: Silver medal and £10,000:<BR>
Andrew BROWNELL, 27, from Portland Oregon, USA <BR>
who also won the Benjamin Britten special prize.<BR>
<BR>
3rd prize: Bronze medal and £6,000 (The Geoffrey de Keyser award): <BR>
Denis KOZHUKHIN, 20; from Nizhny Novgord, Russia.<BR>
<BR>
4th prize: £3,500:<BR>
Siheng SONG, 24; From Shanghai, China.<BR>
<BR>
5th prize: £3,000:<BR>
Sung-Hoon KIM, 28; from Seoul, Korea.<BR>
<BR>
6th prize: £2,500:<BR>
Grace FONG, aged 27; from Cleveland, Ohio, USA.<BR>
<BR>
Yurie Miura from Japan, a semi-finalist was awarded The David Rymer Trust prize of £1000 for an outstanding performance in the early rounds.<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" BACK="#ffffff" style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=3 PTSIZE=12 FAMILY="SERIF" FACE="Times New Roman" LANG="0"><BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</FONT> </HTML>