Huang, a student at the Juilliard School, was also recently a finalist at the Van Cliburn competition, and has performed at the Kennedy Center and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw. For her final concert, she performed Beethoven's Concerto No. 2.

Russian pianist Sergey Kusnetsov, who studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, took second place, and third and fourth prizes were won by Stanislav Khristenko and Spencer Myer, respectively.

A number of special prizes were also awarded. Huang won the Chopin and Beethoven prizes, and Myer won awards for performances of American and contemporary music.

The Cleveland International Piano Competition was founded in 1975. Previous winners include Jean-Ives Thibaudet, Benedetto Lupo, Philippe Bianconi, Angela Hewitt, Sergei Babayan, Ilya Itin, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, and Roberto Plano.