Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition
The Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition is a piano competition taking place in Santander, Spain. Founded in 1972 by Paloma O'Shea as a national prize, it turned into an international competition in its 2nd edition, and was professionalized in the mid-70s, being accepted into the World Federation of International Music Competitions in 1976.
Organized by the Albéniz Foundation and chaired by the Infanta Margarita and sponsored by a network of civil service and private companies, it arranges an extensive world tour for the winners, including debuts in auditoriums such as the Carnegie Hall, National Auditorium of Music and the Wigmore Hall and cash prizes. The 19th edition of the competition will take place from July 25 - August 5, 2018.
The competition
Currently, 20 pianists are accepted into the competition through a demanding shortlist of candidates. The competition consists of a preliminary round, a recital round, a chamber music round and final concerto round with a symphony orchestra.Guest artists
During the last stages of the competition, the participants perform with guest artists and ensembles. Past ensembles include the London Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, Madrid Symphony Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Takacs Quartet, Ysaÿe Quartet and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and conductors Philippe Entremont, Sergiu Comissiona and Jesús López-Cobos. This year, guest artists will include RTVE Symphony Orchestra, director Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez and the Quiroga Quartet.Juries
Members of the jury have included Josep Colom, Gary Graffman, Federico Mompou, Vlado Perlemuter, Joaquín Achúcarro, Aldo Ciccolini, Nikita Magaloff, Paul Badura-Skoda, Hiroko Nakamura, Eliso Virsaladze, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Rafael Orozco, Philippe Entremont, Alicia de Larrocha and Dimitri Bashkirov. This edition, the jury will be composed by Dimitri Alexeev, Akiko Ebi, Márta Gulyás, Claudio Martínez-Mehner, Arie Vardi, Ian Yunwook Yoo and Marco Zuccarini.Prize winners
This is a partial listing of prize-winners of the Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition.| Year | Grand Prize | 2nd prize | 3rd prize | Other |
| 1972 |  Josep Colom | Jesús González Alonso | — | ;Honour Certificates
|
| 1974 |  Ruriko Kikuchi | Jesús González Alonso José M. Martínez Pínzolas | María T. Berrueta de Rubio | ;Honour Certificates
|
| 1975 |  Marioara Trifan |  Peter Bithell | Rebecca A. Penneys | 4th:  Silvie Carbonel 5th:  Margarita Höhenrieder |
| 1976 |  Hüseyin Sermet |  Ivan Klánský | Not awarded | 4th: Janine Drath 5th: Nina Hamaguchi 6th: Marie Sprimont 7th: Milan Langer |
| 1977 |  Ramzi Yassa | Jeremy Atkins David Allen Wehr | Not awarded | ;Special Prizes
|
| 1978 |  Josep Colom | Frédéric Aguessy |  Anna Manasarova | ;4th prize
|
| 1980 | Not awarded | Barry Douglas |  Dan Atanasiu  Francesco Nicolosi | ;Antonio Lavín prize
|
| 1982 |  Marc Raubenheimer | Oleg Volkov | Yves Rault | 4th:  Alec Chien 5th: Eric N'Kaoua 6th: Kazuoki Fujii |
| 1984 |  Hugh Tinney |  José Carlos Cocarelli | Rauf Kasimov | 4th:  Fei-Ping Hsu 5th:  Daniel Rivera 6th: William Koehler 7th: Nigora Akhmedova 8th: Edward Zilberkant Special prize: Viktor Chernelievsky |
| 1987 | David Allen Wehr | Sergey Yerokhin | Bernd Glemser | 4th:  Pavel Nersessian 5th:  Matthias Fletzberger |
| Grand Prize | Honour Prize | Honour mentions | Finalist prizes | |
| 1990 | Not awarded | Sergey Yerokhin |  David Kuijken | Brenno Ambrosini Viktor Lyadov Jean-François Dichamp Claudio Martínez Mehner ;Semifinalists diploma Isabel Dubuis Mariana Gurkova Oxana Rapita Alexander Sandler Emily White Marta Zabaleta |
| 1992 |  Eldar Nebolsin | Xu Zhong | — | Markus Groh Mariana Gurkova Eduardo Monteiro Vadim Rudenko |
| 1995 | Not awarded | Enrico Pompili | — |  Armands Ābols Carl Cranmer Miguel Ituarte  Polina Leschenko David M. Louie |
| 1998 |  Yung Wook Yoo | Jong Hwa Park | Plamena Mangova | ;Laureate prizes
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| 2002 | Not awarded | Boris Giltburg | Ning An Soyeon Lee | ;Laureate prizes
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| Grand Prize | 2nd prize | 3rd prize | Audience Prize | |
| 2005 | Alberto Nosè | Herbert Schuch | Jie Chen | Alberto Nosè |
| 2008 | Jue Wang |  Avan Yu | Kotaro Fukuma | Avan Yu |
| 2012 | Not awarded | Ahn Ah-ruem |  Tamar Beraia János Palojtay | Tamar Beraia |
| 2015 | Juan Pérez Floristán | David Jae-Weon Huh | Jianing Kong | Juan Pérez Floristán |
Anna Jastrzebska-Quinn
Gaswan K. Zerikly
Albert Tiu
Chih-Han Liu
Alexander Romanovsky