A 22-year-old Irish musician took the first prize last night at the prestigious Clara Haskil international piano competition in Vevey, Switzerland.
Finghin Collins's achievement earned him a prize fund of around 20,000 Swiss francs (£10,000) as well as a long list of concert engagements in Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, Russia and Canada. He will also make a CD recording for Claves, a Swiss company.
Mr Collins has been a student of John O'Conor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music since he was six. He was a multiple prizewinner at Dublin's Feis Ceoil, as well as overall winner of the RTE Musician of the Future Competition, the Lisney Piano Award and the Yamaha Scholarship.
He was a semi-finalist at both the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1996 and the Guardian Dublin International Piano Competition in 1997, where he won the prize for the best Irish pianist.
He already enjoys a busy international career, having played in concerts in the UK, Holland, Germany France, Italy and the Czech Republic.
The two-week long Clara Haskil competition, which began on September 1st, is considered to be among the world's most prestigious for piano. It took place before a distinguished panel of judges headed by the French pianist Michel Dalberto.
A total of 88 pianists from 27 countries performed in the first round, 13 progressed to the second, six to the semi-final and four to the final.
Mr Collins performed Beethoven's third piano concerto with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra conducted by Emmanuel Krivine for the final, which was broadcast live on Eurovision.
Earlier this year, he was one of only six pianists invited to participate at the Summer Academy of the Ravinia Festival in the United States.