E13: Interview with Adam Gatehouse, Artistic Director of the Leeds International Piano Competition

The Leeds International Piano Competition is one of the top 3 most important and prestigious piano competitions in the world, with previous finalists such as Murray Perahia, Mitsuko Uchida, András Schiff... and dozens more names that anybody familiar with classical pianists will recognise instantly as being in the top row of the best, most important, and most successful artists in the business. The competition has always owed its strength and international presence to its founder Dame Fanny Waterman- after she recently stepped down from her role as Artistic Director, Adam Gatehouse and the pianist Paul Lewis took over the reigns as joint Artistic Directors (Paul Lewis has unfortunately since resigned from the post due to career commitments). We already covered aspects of The Leeds (as the competition is more informally known) in episode 5 of the Heart of the Piano Podcast when I interviewed Benjamin Frith, who took part as a competitor in 2 separate years, and whose teacher is Dame Fanny Waterman. So it was a pleasure to be able to chat to Adam who very kindly gave us some of his time in the middle of the Leeds Piano Festival (a new annual offshoot of the competition!) which is currently running in Leeds (Yorkshire) and London.