ANNA Tsybuleva, winner of the 2015 Leeds International Piano Competition, returns to Leeds Town Hall on Saturday, March 17 to perform with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Joshua Weilerstein.

Music by German composers Bach, Schumann and Austrian composer Mahler is to be performed.

The concert opens with music by Bach arranged by George Benjamin. Schumann’s Piano Concerto was never performed in concert during the composer’s lifetime. Today it is one of his most popular works and it is said to be the influence of Grieg’s Piano Concerto which is the piece that Russian composer Rachmaninov credits with the inspiration behind his fabulous piano concertos. Schumann’s Piano Concerto is fierce, bold and rhythmically exciting and features a contrastingly fragile second movement for its core. The concert concludes with Symphony No 1 by Mahler. This epic symphonic work requires a hugely extended orchestra and Mahler incorporates nineteenth-century German song into the work, an important mark that he left on the symphonic genre.

Described by pianist Peter Donohoe as ‘one of the very finest young musicians of her generation’, Anna Tsybuleva is the second female winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition. As a child, her mother taught her piano and she went on to win her first competition, the Russian National Piano Competition, aged 11. She has won many other competitions such as the International Piano Competition at Ibla, Italy. Anna has performed concertos with orchestras such as The Hallé, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and recently made a successful debut in Singapore with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Anna would love to have seen pianist Vladimir Horowitz or composer Brahms perform live.

Conductor Joshua Weilerstein made his debut at the BBC Proms in 2017 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and his sister, Alisa Weilerstein, as soloist. In the 2017/18 season, he has debuted with the BBC Philharmonic and has returned to conduct the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic. Joshua aims to programme a mix of traditional and contemporary repertoire and tries to perform a piece in each concert by a living composer, which in this concert is George Benjamin. Joshua currently lives in New York City and loves to talk to his audiences about classical music, programming and the experience of attending a live concert.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra is the UK’s oldest professional orchestra and has been involved with the music-making in its home city since 1840. The orchestra has worked with renowned soloists and conductors from across the globe, as well as notable popular musicians from Liverpool such as Sir Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello.

The Leeds International Concert Season is the largest authority run music programme in the country and has been programming classical concerts in Leeds since 1980. The highlight of the season is the International Orchestral Season that invites orchestras from across the globe to perform in the beautiful surroundings of Leeds Town Hall.

Tickets for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra are £37.10 - £13.78 from the City Centre Box Office on 0113 376 0318 or online at www.leedsconcertseason.co.uk.