After 17 days of music making, 26-year old Ukrainian Vadym Kholodenko has triumphed over 30 pianists to win the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He takes home the Nancy Lee and Perry R Bass Gold Medal, the Van Cliburn Winner's Cup and a cash prize of $50,000. He also receives studio and live recordings produced by Harmonia Mundi USA, and will embark upon international and US concert tours as part of his award.

Winners of the Silver and Crystal awards are Beatrice Rana and Sean Chen respectively, who each receive $20,000, US concert tours, a live recording produced by Harmonia Mundi USA and career management.

Born in Kiev, Vadym Kholodenko won first prize at the International Schubert Competition in Dortmund in 2012, and the Sendai International Music Competition in 2010. He has worked with conductors Yuri Bashmet and Vladimir Spivakov, and has performed extensively in Europe, Asia and America. He released recordings of Liszt, Rachmaninov, and Medtner on Russia's TV Culture label in 2009. An enthusiastic chamber musician, he currently attends the Moscow Conservatory.

This year’s competition took place between May 24 and June 9 at Fort Worth's Bass Performance Hall in Texas. Founded in 1962 in honour of the late Van Cliburn - himself the winner of the first International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition - the competition is held every four years, hosted by the Van Cliburn Foundation. Members of this year’s jury included John Giordano from the United States and pianist Dmitri Alexeev from Russia.