In April 2000, at the age of twenty, the Finnish pianist Antti Siirala won the London International Piano Competition, carrying off the First Prize with a masterly performance of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 after replacing an indisposed finalist at extremely short notice. Before his triumph in London he had already won Second Prize in the Dino Ciani Competition in Milan, and First Prize and a special award for the best performance of a late Beethoven Sonata (the ‘Hammerklavier’) in the Beethoven Competition in Vienna. He has given recitals and appeared as a soloist with well-known orchestras in major cities and festivals throughout Europe and in the United States.