Ukrainian pianist Nikita Burzanitsa wins Newbury Spring Festival’s prestigious 2025 Sheepdrove Piano Competition

Ukrainian pianist Nikita Burzanitsa, a student at the Royal College of Music, has been awarded First Prize in the 2025 Newbury Spring Festival Sheepdrove Piano Competition.

The competition, held at the Sheepdrove Eco Centre in Lambourn and generously supported by the Sheepdrove Trust, concluded with a public final on Sunday (May 18).

Burzanitsa was awarded the top prize of £3,000 and was also the recipient of the Audience Prize, worth £250, donated by an anonymous donor. As part of his prize, Burzanitsa performed a public recital at the Corn Exchange, Newbury on Monday 19 May, one of the Festival’s prestigious Young Artists Lunchtime Recital Series.

Second Prize (£1,500), donated by Greenham Trust, was awarded to Chinese pianist Yuxin Pu, a student at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Third Prize (£750), supported by the Friends of Newbury Spring Festival, went to Italian pianist Thomas Masciaga from Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Fourth Prize (£500), supported by an anonymous donor, was awarded to Uzbek pianist Alina Pritulenko from Trinity Laban Conservatoire.

Both Pritulenko and Masciaga also received £300 Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation prizes.

This year’s judges were: Rupert Christiansen (music critic and writer, and Director, Robert Turnbull Piano Foundation), Mark Eynon (director, Newbury Spring Festival), Mikhail Kazakevich (Russian pianist and Professor of Piano, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance), Lucy Parham, (British concert pianist and Professor of Piano at Guildhall School of Music and Drama), Elena Vorotko (artistic director, The Keyboard Charitable Trust) and David Whelton (artistic director of Klosters Festival, Switzerland and former managing director of Philharmonia Orchestra.)

Nikita Burzanitsa was born into a family of musicians in Donetsk, Ukraine, and began playing the piano at the age of seven under Professor Nataliya Chesnokova. In 2008, he enrolled at the Special Music School for Gifted Children in Donetsk. He later graduated from secondary school in Toretsk, Ukraine, receiving the gold medal ‘For High Academic Success’ in 2015. That same year, he was awarded a full scholarship to study at Wells Cathedral School in Somerset, UK, under John Byrne.

His musical education continued with a full scholarship to Donetsk State Conservatory in 2017, and later at the Royal College of Music in London, where he currently studies with Professor Dmitri Alexeev. Nikita has also held multiple prestigious scholarships and awards, including the Milstein Medal Award, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music Overseas Postgraduate Scholarship, the Piano Charitable Trust Scholarship, and the Drake Calleja Trust Scholarship.

In 2023, he was awarded a full scholarship to continue his studies on the Artist Diploma programme at the Royal College of Music.

Throughout his training, Burzanitsa has participated in international festivals and competitions, performing widely across Europe and Central Asia. He has given solo recitals in Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, France, Belgium, Italy, and the UK, and has performed as a soloist with orchestras under notable conductors including Nikolay Dyadura, Vladimir Sirenko, Natalia Ponomarchuk, and Roman Moiseev.

The Sheepdrove Piano Competition was established in 2009 by the Sheepdrove Trust and is open to pianists aged 26 and under from the UK’s leading music colleges. The competition offers a rare opportunity for young musicians to perform in a nurturing and inspiring rural environment. It forms a vital part of the Newbury Spring Festival’s commitment to supporting young artists.

Visit www.newburyspringfestival.org.uk for more information.