RNCM Chopin Prize / Tue 10 Mar

Harmony is a year 8 joint first study violinist and pianist.  Her piano tutor is Lulu Yang

Elijah is a year 11 student.  His piano tutor is Kathryn Page

Julian is a year 10 student. His piano tutor is Ben Powell

Leo is a year 12 student. His piano tutor is Jonathan Middleton

Lola is a year 12 student. Her piano tutor is Gemma Beeson

Tsukushi Mitsuda is a pianist who is currently studying at Royal Northern College of Music. She has gained a wide and huge range of repertoire, from Baroque to the 20th century including jazz through her study with Mayumi Inaba, Yoshiko Onishi, Jeremy Carter, and a current tutor SallyAnn Macleod. She also studied violin with Noriko Yamamoto and Fiona Gosling.

Tsukushi was born in Japan in March 2003. She began learning violin at the age of 3 and piano at the age of 4. She was educated at the Omi Brotherhood Junior High School. At the school she belonged to the Chorus Club and played the piano and organ to accompany the choir.

Her family moved to the UK in April 2017 and she attended Cheltenham Bournside school. She achieved excellent results in her GCSE examinations, including a grade 9 music, and in her A-levels, including an A* in music. She also gained ABRSM Grade 8 piano and Grade 7 violin and both were passed with distinction. Whilst studying at Bournside school, she won the senior award in the Bournside Young Musician of the Year competition in 2019.

Tsukushi has been constantly having solo recitals since her first recital in Cheltenham in 2018. The venues she has performed include The Pitville Pumproom, Chapel Arts Cheltenham, and Buxton United Reformed Church. During the pandemic, she was invited to a recorded recital at the Holst Birthplace Museum in Cheltenham. In January 2024, she played in the pre-concert performance for the BBC Philharmonic at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. In 2025, she became a finalist for the senior category of the Wales International Piano Competition.

At the RNCM, Tsukushi has enthusiastically attended several learning opportunities with renowned pianists. She has had lessons or masterclasses with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Sir Stephen Hough, Maurizio Baglini, Boaz Sharon and Erik Tawaststjerna.

Since Tsukushi became a student of the RNCM, she is learning chamber music as well as solo performance. In March 2022, she participated IX Stasys Vaniūnas Chamber Ensembles Competition in Lithuania as a cello-piano duo. Her piano duo with Minsung Park was chosen as one of the finalists for the RNCM Piano Duo Prize in 2023 and had their first duo concert at the Cheltenham Town Hall in March 2024. In January 2025, they won the RNCM Piano Duo Prize. In March 2025, she was awarded Amanda Ira Aldridge Honorable Mention with Glesni Jones at the Williams-Howard Prize.

She is supported by FW Wright Piano Scholarship.

Stella Huang is a graduate student majoring in Piano at the Royal Northern College of Music. She is currently under the tutorial of Professor Ben Frith. She previously had musical education under the guidance of Professor Maxim Mogilevsky which laid a solid foundation for her artistic growth.

During her undergraduate studies, she demonstrated academic prowess: she was awarded the First-Class Outstanding Student Scholarship for two consecutive years, and successfully staged multiple solo concerts, including the featured “Shanghai Spring · Peak of Romantic” piano solo recital, showcasing her mature interpretation of musical works.

In 2024, she achieved milestones in both performance and teaching. She claimed the First Prize in the Piano Youth Group at the Magnolia International Music Festival; in the same year, she collaborated with the East China Normal University Symphony Orchestra as a soloist, delivering a performance that won unanimous acclaim. Additionally, her outstanding guidance to students earned her the Excellent Instructor Honor at the same festival.

Edward Lloyd has been described as “A highly poetic and expressive performer with strong musical instincts alongside beautiful tonal colouring creating a notable silence in the audience indicative of their expressive ability and communicative musicianship.” (Pascal Nemirovski)

Edward made his concerto debut with the Oxford Festival Orchestra in the Church of St Mary the Virgin in 2022. Subsequent performances have brought him to the Bridgewater Hall, Stoller Hall, Liszt Academy in Budapest and most recently the Liverpool Philharmonic.

His competition achievements include prizes in the Liszt Society International Piano Competition, Christopher Duke and Vienna International Competition as well as the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe Competition. Edward is also involved in chamber music and has received the first prize in both the Dorothy Richardson and the Alexander Young prizes for vocal accompaniment.

Edward Lloyd studied at Chetham’s School of Music and is currently at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Prof. Graham Scott, where he is supported by the The LHR Charitable Foundation.

Edward is an artist in the Davison Young Musicians Foundation. Since 2024, Edward has been an awards advocate for the DYMF. Currently in 2025, Edward has been selected as a Drake Calleja Trust Scholar and is supported by the Craxton Memorial Trust.