Sebastian-Benedict Flore, born in Rome, began his piano studies at the age of five. Having completed his Bachelor’s degree with first-class honours at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of Katya Apekisheva, he has recently entered the studio of Nora Doallo at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano for his postgraduate studies. He has won various prizes, including the first prize at last year’s edition of the Liszt Society’s International Piano Competition. In demand as a solo and chamber musician, he has also performed in some of London’s most prestigious venues, including Milton Court, the Barbican Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall.
A very impressive recital by Sebastian – Benedict Flore of ten works of Liszt rarely if ever heard in the concert hall. The only one I knew was En rêve because my old piano teacher Gordon Green had picked it up from his teacher Egon Petri, a pupil of Busoni, together with a love for Busoni, in particular his monster piano concerto and his masterpiece Doktor Faust. Sebastian showed us this visionary world of Liszt that was looking to the future and after his death was to be taken up by his pupil Busoni. A strange world that Sebastian depicted with a kaleidoscopic palette of sounds, giving such character to what can seem just a series of sounds moving always towards atonality. The remarkable thing was that this young man had memorised all these works, which in itself was a feat of memory and shows a dedication to this strange world of uncharted territory. Sebastian,like his mentor Leslie Howard, hardly moving as he was listening carefully to the sounds he was producing and that any excess of movement would have interfered with this intense concentration. Hats of to the Liszt Society for awarding their top prize last year to such a dedicated Lisztian.
3.15 pm The Liszt Society International Piano Competition Final 2025 Maria Saakian (b.2002 Russia)
Concert Étude S144 no 2 “La leggierezza” (4′)
Années de pèlerinage – Deuxième Année – Italie, S161:
No. 7: Après une lecture de Dante: fantasia quasi Sonata (16′)
Maria Saakian has performed with a wide range of orchestras and as a soloist in Germany, Armenia, Italy, Spain, and other countries across Europe. She is a prize-winner of several competitions, including the 2nd prize at the Arno Babajanyan International Competition (2019), the International Competition “Solo with Orchestra” (2020), and the 1st prize at the International Festival of Music and Arts Le Ciel de Paris , France (2022. Born in 2002, Maria grew up in Moscow, Russia, and began playing the piano at the age of five with Professor Karina Ayvazova. Soon after, she started taking part in various concerts and festivals. In 2016, she entered the Gnessin Moscow Special Music School (College) in the class of Professor Elena Plyashkevich. Upon graduation in 2021, she continued her studies at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music under Professor Yury Bogdanov. In December 2021, Maria received a full scholarship to study with Florian Mitrea at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
2. Edward Lloyd (b 2001, United Kingdom)
Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S173:
No. 4: Pensée des morts (16′)
No. 2: Ave Maria (7′)
Edward Lloyd made his concerto debut with the Oxford Festival Orchestra in the Church of St Mary the Virgin in 2022. Subsequent performances have brought him to the Bridgewater Hall, Steinway Hall London, Stoller Hall, and most recently the Liszt Academy in Budapest. His competition achievements include prizes in the Christopher Duke International Piano Competition, Vienna International Competition and the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Competition. He studied at Chetham’s School of Music and is currently at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Prof. Graham Scott, where he is supported by the The LHR Charitable Foundation. He has been fortunate to work with such distinguished artists as Stephen Hough, Jean Efflam Bavouzet, Murray Mclachlan and Krzysztof Jablonski. He is an artist in the Davison Young Musicians Foundation. Since 2024, Edward has been an awards advocate for the DYMF. Currently in 2025, Edward has been selected as a Drake Calleja Trust Scholar and is supported by the Craxton Memorial Trust.
3. Donglai Shi (b 1999, China)
Années de pèlerinage – Deuxième Année – Italie, S161:
No. 6: Sonetto 123 del Petrarca ‘I vidi in terra’ (6′)
Variationen über das Motiv von J. S. Bach: Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen , S180 (16′
Donglai Shi holds a Bachelor of Music from the Schulich School of Music of McGill University (Class of 2022), with a double major in piano performance and composition and a minor in orchestral conducting. He has also completed the 2-year Artist Master’s program in Advanced Keyboard Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (Class of 2025) under the guidance of Prof. Carole Presland and Prof. Ronan O’Hora, with partial scholarship. He is now an Artist Diploma student in the same institution with the same teachers. He received partial scholarship from the McGill University throughout his studies. He was finalist in the McGill Concerto Competition (October 2021), performing the 1 st Piano Concerto by Chopin. He was among the 30 national finalists in the Steppingstone edition of the 2022 Canadian Music Competition. Strongly interested in chamber music, he reached the final of the McGill Chamber Music Competition twice, in 2019 and 2021, and the final of the Ivan Sutton chamber prize in 2024.After moving to London, he is giving recitals across the city, including a debut performance in the newly opened Bechstein Hall this past February.
4. Max Walsh (b 2007, United Kingdom)
La lugubre gondola, S220/1 (4′)
Années de pèlerinage – Troisième Année – Italie, S161:
No. 4: Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este (8′)
Polonaise No. 1 in C minor, S223/1 Polonaise mélancolique (11′)
Max Walsh studies piano at the Junior Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with Jan Loeffler, Head of Keyboard. He is in his final year of Sixth Form, where he studies music, philosophy and Spanish, and is currently applying to study piano and composition at Conservatoire next year. He has performed at The Reform Club, London in a masterclass with Boris Giltburg, at the RBC ‘Faure and his World’ Concert Series and at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham. He has also worked with musicians such as Joanna MacGregor and Julian Lloyd Webber. This year he was awarded ‘Highly Commended’ at The New Talent Festival and Bromsgrove Young Musicians’ Platform. Recently, he was awarded a London Music Fund Senior Scholarship and has been invited to perform a New Artist Recital at Steinway Hall by The Keyboard Charitable Trust.
5. Minsung Park (b 2003, South Korea)
Années de pèlerinage – Deuxième Année – Italie, S161:
No. 5: Sonetto 104 del Petrarca ‘Pace non trovo’ (7′)
No. 7: Après une lecture de Dante: fantasia quasi Sonata (16′)
Minsung Park was born in 2003 in South Korea, and started piano lessons age 7 after moving to Vietnam, studying with Trang Trinh. He commenced studies at Chetham’s School of Music in 2019, under Murray McLachlan, and subsequently studied with him at the Royal Northern College of Music, graduating with 1 st class honours. He is now working towards the Master of Music degree under Graham Scott. He has a wealth of performance experience with numerous recitals in England, as well as Vietnam, Poland, Italy and France. He has participated in masterclasses with Sir Stephen Hough, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Philippe Cassard, Christopher Elton, Yury Shadrin, Simon Callaghan and Kathryn Stott. In 2024, he made a remarkable concerto debut with St. John’s Festival Orchestra on performing Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto. Minsung has participated in various international piano competitions around the world. He was a Finalist in 2023 Watford International Piano Competition and won the 1st Prize in the 5th Spezzaferri International Music Prize in Verona, Italy. In 2024 he won the 2nd prize in LOML International Piano Competition (Category B), and in May 2025, he won the 3rd prize in RNCM Mark Ray Piano Recital Competition.
6. Tianran Zhou (b 1997, China)
Douze Études d’exécution transcendante, S139:
No. 11: Harmonies du soir (10′)
12 Lieder von Franz Schubert, S558:
No. 8: Gretchen am Spinnrade (4′)
Fantasie und Fuge über das Thema B A C H, S529ii (12′)
Tianran Zhou is a Chinese pianist who was born in 1997 and began her Bachelor of Music studies at the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) in 2017 with a substantial scholarship. In 2021, she was admitted to pursue her Master’s at the MSM. In 2024, she accepted a full scholarship, fellowship, and teaching assistantship at the University of Northern Colorado. She has given solo recitals in China, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other places. During her studies, she performed at Carnegie Hall, participated in the 2019 MSM Winter Chamber Music Festival, and was featured in contemporary piano showcases in 2021 and 2022. In August 2025, during the Classical-D International Piano Music Festival (CIPMF) – founded by Chinese pianist Hao Yao and directed by the maestro Leslie Howard – s he held a Liszt Recital at St Marylebone Parish Church. She has won numerous competition awards, including 1st Prize at the 2016 Hamamatsu International Junior Piano Competition (China Regional), the 2016 Asian Chopin International Piano Competition (Amateur Category), and the 2017 Steinway National Piano Competition (Eastern China Division).
Dr Hugh Mather was happy to announce for Melvyn Cooper : The Liszt Society Senior Intercollegiate Piano Competition on the 26th April 2026 at Markson Recital Hall City Lit 1-10 Keeley St WC2. Hugh was also proud to announce the next Liszt Society Day in Perivale in November 2026.
This is my own private Birds Eye view :
‘A fascinating afternoon with some superb piano playing from six carefully chosen finalists. The Competition jurors were Leslie Howard , Mark Viner (who will be playing at St Mary’s on the 18th December at 7.30 A specially prepared Christmas Recital ), Melvyn Cooper and Stefano Severini ( past winner of this very prize) and after a very long wait they announced their verdict.
It took longer than usual because there were obviously serious discussions about what criteria should be used between potential and the concrete. Highly commended were Minsung Park and Tianran Zhou both with exemplary studies behind them and a string of competition successes. Today was not their day and Minsung Park did not manage to capture that sparkle and brilliance with the Dante Sonata that Maria Saakian had shown us at the opening. Tianran Zhou had all the temperament that Minsung missed but her small hand and obvious jet lag, from the long journey she had made especially from the USA, did not show her at her best. Maria Saakian quite rightly shared second place with Edward Lloyd, who with his big hands and even bigger intellect chose two similarly very contemplative works by Liszt that did not show off his brilliance and showmanship but only his considerable intellectual rather than pianistic qualities. Douglai Shi is a formed artist with a range of sounds and a natural way of moving around the keyboard that had astonished me at his graduation recital at the Guildhall last summer. But he is a formed artist and at twenty six he has enjoyed superb training from two of the finest institutions in the world. Max Walsh is a sixth former who I had heard play in Giltberg’s Masterclass a few months ago. A youthful burning passion for music and a young man born to play the piano. He and the piano fit so naturally in a way that cannot be taught and at only 18 his potential is enormous and may know no bounds. He may not have given such perfectly refined performances but by ‘God he’s got it’ ! A difficult choice for the jury, that explains why our tea got so cold, but well worth the wait to know that the Liszt Society can nurture such natural talent.
Max Walsh with Boris Giltberg in the masterclass at the Reform Club for the Beethoven Society
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 