Piano Competition: The Story of the Leeds

by Wendy Thompson

Recounts how Fanny Waterman helped start the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1963, and looks at the structure of the competitions

268 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1990

About the author

Wendy Thompson studied piano and violin at the Royal College of Music, London, and then musicology and French Baroque opera at King's College, London. She subsequently moved to publishing, working on the New Groove Dictionary of Music and the New Oxford Companion to Music, and was Editorial Director of Faber Music Limited from 1986-91. In between she spent six years working for the BBC's Music Information Department, and continued a parallel career as a freelance violinist.

In 1993 Wendy Thompson founded Classic Arts Productions Limited, an independent radio production company that provides distinguished music programmes for BBC Radio 3, including the award-winning weekly series Private Passions, the music quiz Full Score, and the series on 20th-century British music and poetry A Land Without Music?. Classic Arts has also recorded many live concerts and concert series.

Wendy Thompson has published several books, including Piano Competition: The Story of the Leeds, Mozart: A Bicentennial Tribute, titles on Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Debussy and Tchaikovsky in the Composer's World series, and biographies of Handel and Grieg. She provides programme notes on a regular basis for the BBC and the Philharmonia Orchestra, among others.