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The 2005 Competition
THE FINALS
FEMALE FINANCE DIRECTOR AND 79 YEAR-OLD PIANO TUNER
NAMED UK’S BEST AMATEUR PIANISTS
| Two remarkable amateur pianists have achieved national and professional recognition as the most outstanding amateur pianists in the UK, after winning at the Finals of the first-ever Pianist-Yamaha Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs. The Finals were held in front of a sold-out 800 capacity audience at Cadogan Hall, London, on Saturday 26th November. Due to its amazing success, the Competition will take place every two years. |
35 year-old Director of Finance Sabine Vinck won the Classical award after impressing concert pianists Martin Roscoe and Kathryn Stott. 79 year-old piano tuner Eddy James was awarded first prize in the Modern category by celebrity judges Jamie Cullum and Julian Joseph. Both Eddy and Sabine received a £10,000 Yamaha voucher to go towards the piano of their choice.
Born in Belgium, Sabine’s passion for music led her to London in order to both fulfil a career and enjoy the wealth of classical concerts and cultural life London has to offer. Sabine even changed to her current job so that she could travel less and therefore practise more in the evenings. At the Finals (dressed to dazzle in a dramatic red taffeta gown), she played an enchanting Clementi Sonata followed by a fiery and passionate Prokofiev No 1 Sonata. Of Sabine’s performance, judge Kathryn Stott stated, ‘It was a great pleasure to hear Sabine perform. She is a pianist with warmth, and her honest commitment to the music was a joy.’ Sabine told us, ‘Having the opportunity to play in a major concert hall is something every amateur pianist dreams of. Saturday night was a unique and very special occasion for all of us seven finalists; it is almost a pity that there had to be a winner.’ |
 © James Cumpsty |
© James Cumpsty |
For Eddy James – who has been tuning pianos for nearly 60 years and worked with legends Liberace, Victor Borge and Count Basie among others – the Finals was his first ever opportunity to take centre stage and appear under the spotlight where he wowed the audience with dazzling performances of Body and Soul, The Man I Love and Manhattan. Jamie Cullum commented: ‘He took my breath away and I realised I still have a lot to learn – and this from someone who’s never played on a stage in front of a live audience – he’s amazing, just amazing.’ Stunned by his victory, Eddy stated, ‘After decades of tuning other peoples’ pianos so that they could go out to perform, it was a dream come true to play on stage in front of a live audience. I never expected to win and I’m in shock.’ Eddy began playing piano at the age of eight and is completely self-taught. He studied piano tuning and repairing at the Northern Polytechnic in 1949 and started his own business in 1960. |
Winner of the Audience Favourite Award went to Tim Morris, a professor of theoretical physics at Southampton University. Tim cast a spell upon the audience with his incredible drama and intensity. His earth-shattering rendition of Liszt’s ‘Funerailles’ had the audience on tenterhooks, and when he got up to take his bow, there was frenzied applause.
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 © James Cumpsty |
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The other finalists were Howard Wolfin, Steve Doig, Rupert Egerton-Smith and Nigel Rogers.
© James Cumpsty
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Astonished organisers of the Competition received hundreds of entries of outstanding quality from all over the UK from people from all walks of life including hairdressers, pilots, TV producers, housewives, management consultants, ministers, professors, window cleaners and doctors. There were only two basic rules to the Competition – entrants had to be over 30 years of age and be amateur players. What Pianist magazine and Yamaha were looking for was ‘real’ amateur talent driven by a love of piano. That’s what they found.
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