All of us at the Leeds International Piano Competition are deeply shocked and disturbed at the situation in Ukraine and we stand with all in the global community who are calling for peace.
The nature of any music competition is to foster friendly rivalry between musicians of all nations, in the spirit that music unites us irrespective of our nationalities or backgrounds. Since its inception, our competition has welcomed many wonderful Ukrainian and Russian pianists, not least in 2021.
The aggression against Ukraine is utterly reprehensible and we send our heartfelt thoughts, support and solidarity to all citizens and musicians of Ukraine in this dark hour.