Twenty-seven-year-old Russian pianist Nikita Mndoyants has won an international piano competition in Cleveland, Ohio.
The pianist performed Beethoven’s fourth concerto for piano and orchestra. Over the course of the two week competition, the pianist played about a dozen works, including works by Haydn, Bach, and Schubert.
“The results of this completion have almost no value,” admitted Mndoyants. “You are just getting ready to achieve the highest level of performance for which you are capable; ready for a new step in [your] professional life.”
In addition to Mndoyants, three more pianists ended up among the finalists. Second place went to twenty-year-old Italian Leonardo Colafelice, who chose one of the most famous works by Sergei Prokofiev—№3 concerto for piano and orchestra—for his final performance. In third place, was twenty-seven-year-old Ukrainian Dinara Clinton and in fourth place was twenty-eight-year-old Russian Georgy Chaidze.
Founded in 1975, the competition is held every two years in Cleveland and is attended by musicians under thirty. The main prize includes $75,000 and the right to a solo concert in New York.
Nikita Mndoyants was born in 1989 in Moscow. In 2011, he graduated with honors in piano from the Moscow Conservatory. He has won numerous competitions around the world as a pianist and composer. In 2013, Mndoyants became a finalist at the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas.