Meet the Team

Sir Stephen Hough combines a distinguished career as a concert pianist with those of a composer and writer. Named by The Economist as one of Twenty Living Polymaths, he was the first classical performer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship and was awarded a Knighthood for Services to Music in 2022. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he has performed with the world’s leading orchestras and recorded more than 70 albums, garnering multiple GRAMMY nominations and eight Gramophone Awards. His books include the memoir Enough: Scenes from Childhood and the essay collection Rough Ideas. For 2027, Sir Stephen joins The Leeds as Artistic Director and Chair of the Jury.

Fiona Sinclair has been Chief Executive of The Leeds International Piano Competition since 2018. A trained musician, she brings a rare combination of artistic understanding and strategic leadership to the role. Under her leadership, The Leeds has undergone the most significant evolution in its history — reshaping the Competition’s structure around long-term artist development, expanding its creative learning & engagement programme, and transforming its broadcasting and digital reach. Fiona is a vocal advocate for reform across the international competition sector, championing fairness, care and opportunity for the next generation of artists.

Murray Perahia’s connection to The Leeds runs deep: in 1972 he became the first North American pianist to win the Competition, a victory that launched one of the most celebrated careers in classical music. Renowned as a leading interpreter of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, he has won three GRAMMY Awards, nine Gramophone Awards and the magazine’s first-ever Piano Award, and was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in 2012. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2004. After an extended break from the concert platform, Perahia returned to performing at Wigmore Hall in 2024 — the same year he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge.

As Global Ambassador for The Leeds, Lang Lang brings his standing as one of the most influential pianists of his generation to the Competition’s mission of bringing classical music to new audiences. A dedicated educator and philanthropist alongside his performing career, he holds honorary doctorates from institutions including the University of Leeds, the Royal College of Music and the Central Conservatory of
Music, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2024, and was made an Honorary Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge in 2026. In February 2026 he performed at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Milan — the latest milestone in a career defined by connecting classical music with the widest possible audience.

Fanny Waterman was born in Leeds; her father, Myer Waterman, a Russian Jew, had emigrated to England to work as a jeweller. A gifted concert pianist, she enjoyed considerable success as a soloist in her early career. But by the early 1960s, she had turned her passion to teaching. In 1961, jointly with her friend Marion, Countess of Harewood (later Marion Thorpe) and Lady Roslyn Lyons, she founded the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition. She was Artistic Director and Chair of the competition jury until 2015 when she retired at the age of 95. Her contribution to the city of Leeds was recognised in April 2006, when she was given the Freedom of the City of Leeds.