Aidan Módica, pianist, is one of three winners of the 2026 University of Cambridge Concerto Competition which took place at West Road Concert Hall, before a panel of judges and over 300 members of the public.
Aidan performed Ravel’s ‘Concerto for the Left Hand’ accompanied by Stephen Watson, a Christ’s postgraduate.
Music student Aidan, who was also a finalist in last year’s competition, said:
“Ravel’s Concerto is a profound work, with a goodly number of difficulties and many thorny passages for the pianist. One of the challenges is to create a big sound, giving the illusion that one is using two hands rather than only one.”
Aidan expressed his ‘deepest thanks’ to Stephen and said:
“Despite the challenging and dense orchestral reduction, he played with such conviction and stability, which reassured me no end before and during the performance.”
One of the judges commented that Aidan, “‘grabbed the piece by the scruff of its neck’ and really brought the audience with [him] on the journey.”
The six finalists were selected from an initial field of 21 applicants in the first round of the competition. The other winners were Zosia Dzimitrovicz, also a pianist, and Alex Winnifrith, a trumpeter,
David Pickard OBE, former Director of the BBC Proms and General Director of Glyndebourne chaired the judging panel which also included Stephane Crayton, violinist, researcher, and Director of the Handel House Baroque Orchestra; Melanie Ragge, concert oboist, and Professor of Oboe at the Royal Academy of Music; and the leading collaborative pianist Joseph Middleton.
The winners will each perform a different concerto with one of the University orchestras in the 2026-27 academic year.