Jurors 2024
Nomination Jury
Through his recordings, released by labels such as Sony Classical, Naxos, Wergo, Camerata Tokyo, and Paladino, as well as his worldwide concert performances, Christopher Hinterhuber has established himself internationally as a pianist of remarkable breadth.
His teachers included Rudolf Kehrer, Avo Kouyoumdjian, and Heinz Medjimorec at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, followed by further studies at the Accademia pianistica “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola, Italy, with Lazar Berman. He has also received significant artistic inspiration from Oleg Maisenberg and Vladimir Ashkenazy.
A prizewinner of international competitions in Leipzig (Bach), Saarbrücken (Bach), Pretoria (Unisa), Zurich (Geza Anda), and Vienna (Beethoven), Christopher Hinterhuber regularly performs at major festivals, such as the Salzburg Festival, Mozart Week in Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and the Ruhr Piano Festival, with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jakub Hrůša, Yakov Kreizberg, Sylvain Cambreling, Dima Slobodeniouk, Kirill Karabits, Bruno Weil, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Dennis Russell Davies, Bertrand de Billy, and orchestras including the Vienna Symphony, Vienna Virtuosi, Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, the Vienna and Zurich Chamber Orchestras, the MDR Orchestra Leipzig, Staatskapelle Weimar, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Orchestre Philharmonique Luxembourg, among others.
In 2002/03, he represented Austria, alongside violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, in the “Rising Stars” series at Carnegie Hall and in the most prestigious European concert halls.
A special project was his audio (Schubert, Rachmaninoff, Schoenberg) and video recording (Christopher Hinterhuber’s hands) for the Franco-Austrian film The Piano Teacher, based on the novel by Elfriede Jelinek and directed by Michael Haneke (awarded the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 2001).
A key part of his work is chamber music, as he is a member of the Altenberg Trio Vienna. Radio and television recordings for ORF, DRS2, NHK, SWR, and others round out his artistic activity and underscore his distinguished position among the younger generation of Austrian pianists.
He is a professor of piano performance at the University of Music and Performing Arts (mdw) in Vienna.
Doctor of Art, Professor Sergejs Osokins is one of the most significant figures of the Latvian pianism. After finishing and post-graduate P.Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory he has been working for many years in the Latvian Academy of Music. His deep, colourful and sophisticated interpretations always bring pleasure to true gourmets of classical music.
In Sergejs Osokins’ repertoire one will find masterpieces of various styles and eras, but music by L.van Beethoven, R.Schumann, A.Scriabin and A.Schnittke is sincerely close to his heart.
Sergejs Osokins has received the Latvian Great Music Award for his performance of the Second piano concerto of Johannes Brahms, he was awarded the highest “Three Star” order of Latvian Republic for his creative activity in 2016. For many years Sergejs Osokins is collaborating with English, Swedish, Danish, German, Polish Music Highschools where he performs music and offers master classes.
Sergejs Osokins is not only an outstanding pianist, but also a talented teacher who brought up the most successful young pianists of Latvia – laureates, prize-winners and finalists of famous international piano competitions – Queen Elisabeth, Long-Thibaud, A.Rubinstein, Leeds, F.Chopin (Warsaw) and many others. Among his students – Andrejs and Georgijs Osokins, Vestards and Aurelija Shimkus, Arta Arnicane, Elina Bertina.
Laureate Jury
Brandon Keith Brown, who performed with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra as third prize winner of the 2012 Sir Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition, was the undeniable audience favorite.
In April 2013, Brown made his celebrated European debut with the Badische Staatskapelle, where he mastered an “extremely demanding program, which the young conductor handled with brilliance” (Klassik.com). This led to a debut with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB), where he was immediately invited back. Other orchestras include the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. In 2018, he debuted with the Nürnberger Symphoniker and conducted the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra at the 2018 Tokyo International Competition.
As an experienced opera conductor, Brown has led performances of The Merry Wives of Windsor, Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Puccini’s Suor Angelica. He also assisted in Britten’s Albert Herring and prepared Puccini’s Il Trittico under the baton of Lorin Maazel.
Selected by the Vienna Philharmonic, Brown won the Ansbach Fellowship at the Salzburg Festival in 2012, awarded by the American Austrian Foundation. In 2014, he received the Mendelssohn Scholarship to study with Kurt Masur in Leipzig. His principal mentor is David Zinman. Originally trained as a violinist, he studied under the renowned teachers Roland and Almita Vamos.
A passionate educator, Brown has extensive experience as a university professor and youth orchestra conductor. In 2011 and 2012, he also conducted members of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival’s opera camps for children.
Brown is committed to changing society’s racial awareness through classical music. His writings on race and classical music have been published internationally, including by NPR’s “Here and Now,” DIE ZEIT, The Medium, Deutschlandfunk/Kultur, BR-Klassik, and Der Tagesspiegel. He has lectured at institutions such as the Humboldt University and the University of the Arts in Berlin. He is a frequent podcast guest, speaker, and consultant on the intersection of race and music. Contact him here for speaking engagements.
Michel Dalberto was born in 1955 into a non-musical family. He began playing on a toy piano at the age of 3½, gave his first public performance at 5½, and at 13 entered the Paris Conservatory to study with Vlado Perlemuter. Today, he is regarded as a direct heir to the great French piano school founded by Alfred Cortot, who referred to Perlemuter as one of his favorite students.
Dalberto’s career took off after winning two of the most prestigious international competitions: the Clara Haskil Prize in 1975 and the First Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1978. He has been invited to perform at major festivals such as Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Schleswig-Holstein, and the Wiener Festwochen, and with prominent orchestras like the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Czech Philharmonic, London Philharmonia, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Roma Santa Cecilia, Tokyo NHK, and the Vienna Symphony, under conductors including Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Erich Leinsdorf, Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Masur, and Daniele Gatti.
His extensive repertoire is reflected in an impressive discography of over 45 CDs with Erato, Warner, RCA, Denon, La Dolce Volta, and Aparté. Remarkably, he is the only living pianist to have recorded the complete piano works of Franz Schubert. He has also performed and conducted all of Mozart’s piano concertos. He is currently recording for the La Dolce Volta label, which released a double album in the fall of 2019 featuring five of Beethoven’s most famous piano sonatas. The album was highly praised and earned him the rare distinction of “Artist of the Year” by Classica magazine. In May 2022, he released a Liszt album, recorded at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, which includes the Sonata in B minor. This recording was covered by Le Monde in a full-page interview.
Michel Dalberto, widely recognized as an outstanding chamber music partner, has collaborated with some of the world’s most renowned musicians, including Barbara Hendricks, Jessye Norman, Stephan Genz, Renaud Capuçon, and Lynn Harrell.
Teaching is of great importance to him. After teaching at the Imola Piano Academy (2006-2009) and the Paris Conservatory (2011-2022), he was invited to the new Yehudi Menuhin School in Qingdao to teach piano and chamber music. He is also a guest professor at the Hochschule in Weimar and regularly gives masterclasses at the Rachmaninoff Conservatory in Paris. In 1996, the French government awarded him the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite.
An expert in gastronomy and wine, he is also an avid skier, a certified diver, and a passionate fan of vintage cars and auto racing.
The St. Petersburg-born musician is one of the most sought-after Russian conductors on the international music scene. He is deeply influenced by the musical traditions of his homeland. As a child, he regularly attended opera performances at the Mariinsky Theatre and concerts at the Philharmonic Hall in his hometown, where he saw legendary soloists and conductors such as Vladimir Horowitz, Martha Argerich, Leonard Bernstein, Igor Oistrakh, Kurt Masur, Gidon Kremer, Mariss Jansons, Emil Gilels, and Sviatoslav Richter.
He began his musical education at the age of four, initially focusing on violin and viola. Further studies took him to the prestigious St. Petersburg State Conservatory and the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, where he studied viola with Tabea Zimmermann. Simultaneously, he trained as a conductor under Luigi Sagrestano.
In 1998, Juri Gilbo took on the role of Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Russian Chamber Philharmonic St. Petersburg. Since then, he has regularly collaborated with world-class soloists such as Nigel Kennedy, Mischa Maisky, Vadim Repin, Sir James Galway, Edita Gruberova, Fazil Say, Giora Feidman, Martin Stadtfeld, Sergei Nakariakov, Gábor Boldoczki, Nikolai Tokarev, Lilya Zilberstein, Michael Barenboim, Ute Lemper, Nils Landgren, Ksenija Sidorova, Elena Bashkirova, and Richard Galliano, performing in the most prestigious concert halls across Europe and at renowned international festivals.
Guest conducting engagements frequently take him to orchestras in Germany, Russia, Poland, Spain, Israel, Latin America, China, Switzerland, and Turkey.
His extensive concert activities across Europe are complemented by studio recordings. His CD of works by Carl Maria von Weber, released by SONY MUSIC, was awarded the prestigious “Editor’s Choice” by the renowned British magazine Gramophone.
#standwithukraine
There are times when one cannot remain silent.
I am against war. There is nothing worse than brutal violence and bloodshed.
I myself have Ukrainian ancestors. I have close friends in Ukraine. Many of them.
As a Russian, I feel shame and deep sorrow over the actions of my state.
This is an unspeakable tragedy. Stop the war!
Concert pianist Andrey Gugnin is rapidly gaining international recognition as a passionately virtuosic artist with an “exceptionally versatile and flexible technique that serves a frequently inspired musical imagination” (Gramophone). His recent successes include winning the prestigious 12th International German Piano Award in 2023. In 2024, Andrey Gugnin took first place at the Classic Piano International Competition in Dubai, securing the top prize with a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3. In 2020, Gugnin was honored with the Instrumental Award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards for his recording of Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2 (Hyperion). Since winning the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition in 2016, Gugnin’s career has soared both in performances and recordings, with his passionate interpretations at the forefront.
In addition to his Sydney win, Gugnin received further accolades, including Best Overall Concert and Best Violin and Piano Sonata. He won the Gold Medal and the Audience Award at the 2014 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition, as well as second prize at the 2013 Beethoven International Piano Competition.
As a soloist, Gugnin is in high demand worldwide, having performed with prestigious orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, Danish Radio Orchestra, and Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of renowned conductors like Valery Gergiev and Jaap van Zweden. He also regularly collaborates with chamber ensembles and violinist Tasmin Little.
Gugnin has an extensive discography, including Liszt’s Transcendental Études (Editor’s Choice, Gramophone) and Scriabin’s Mazurkas (2022, Limelight’s “Recording of the Month”). His recordings were also featured on the soundtrack of Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies. He has performed in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, and the Sydney Opera House, and has been featured at major festivals like the Verbier Festival and the Ruhr Piano Festival.
In 2020-21, despite the pandemic, Gugnin gave numerous solo recitals across Russia and performed in Tasmin Little’s farewell concert, which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. During the 2022-23 season, he performed solo concerts across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, in cities such as Vilnius, Salt Lake City, Vancouver, New York, and Tel Aviv. He also performed piano concertos by Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Grieg, and Schumann with international orchestras. In the 2023-24 season, Gugnin has planned further performances in Japan, Spain, Portugal, and Australia, and serves as the artistic director of the OutWest Piano Fest.
Constantin Schreiber is a journalist, author, and news anchor for Tagesschau. A law graduate who speaks fluent Arabic, he spent many years as a reporter in Dubai, Lebanon, and Egypt. In 2016, he was awarded the Grimme Prize for his ntv series Marhaba – Ankommen in Deutschland (Marhaba – Arriving in Germany). Schreiber is the author of several bestsellers, including Glück im Unglück – Wie ich trotz schlechter Nachrichten optimistisch bleibe (Fortune in Misfortune – How I Stay Optimistic Despite Bad News), in which the hobby pianist also explains the power of music. In September, he published his polemic Lasst uns offen reden! Warum die Demokratie furchtlose Debatten braucht (Let’s Speak Openly! Why Democracy Needs Fearless Debates).
Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy is one of the most remarkable artist discoveries of today’s recording industry. His recordings receive awards and enthusiastic reviews in the international press.
As a student, he won top prizes at international piano competitions. His playing has been compared to that of Zimerman, Sokolov, and Richter. Renowned critic Knut Franke wrote: “Schmitt-Leonardy emerges from the shadow of the great master Horowitz thanks to his masterful sound culture.”
His concerts take him to renowned venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Alte Oper Frankfurt, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonie, as well as to international festivals such as the White Nights Festival, Amiata Piano Festival, and the International Piano Festival in Miami. He regularly collaborates with orchestras such as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony, and the string quartet of the Berlin Philharmonic.
As one of the most sought-after pedagogues of our time, he gives masterclasses across Europe, America, Asia, and Africa, including at the Wiener Konzertverein, the Chopin Institute in Warsaw, and the Philharmonie in Munich. In 2010, he was appointed professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, followed by a professorship at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin in 2016, and in 2017 at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Mannheim.
He is a guest professor at the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot and has served as a coach at the Junior Music Camps of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation. In 2020, Lang Lang appointed him as “Vice Educational Director” of Lang Lang Art World in Hangzhou, China. In 2022, he founded his own piano academy in France.
Prof. Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy’s musical roots are diverse: his first teacher, Prof. Alexander Sellier, was a student of Walter Gieseking and Edwin Fischer. Prof. Adrian Aeschbacher (a student of Arthur Schnabel) had a significant influence on Schmitt-Leonardy. Michael Ponti, Schmitt-Leonardy’s teacher and friend, studied with the assistant of Leopold Godowsky and Erich Flinsch, who studied with Franz Liszt’s student, Emil von Sauer. All of these prominent figures shaped Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy’s musical development.
He serves as a jury member at major international piano competitions, including the International German Piano Award, the Epinal Piano Competition, the Santa Cecilia Competition in Porto, the Scriabin Competition, the Lang Lang Piano Competition, and competitions in Thailand, Italy, and ClaviCologne.
He works for the Munich music publisher HENLE, preparing fingerings for Chopin and Schumann editions. Additionally, alongside artists such as Evgeny Kissin, Yuja Wang, Andre Hamelin, Robert Levin, and Murray Perahia, he was selected to create fingerings for HENLE’s new Haydn Sonatas edition.
His students have won over 60 prizes at international piano competitions. Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy is a “Steinway Artist” and patron of an organization that awards 400 concerts annually to young pianists.
Rena Shereshevskaya is a renowned educator and pianist who has trained an entire generation of young pianists, including some of today’s most prominent names (such as Lucas Debargue, Alexandre Kantorow, and Rémi Geniet). She has been awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France), is an Honorary Professor at the Ippolitov-Ivanov State Musical Pedagogical Institute in Moscow, and a recipient of the Ippolitov-Ivanov Prize for Music Education for her outstanding contribution to the development of global musical culture.
After graduating from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and completing postgraduate studies, she taught for twelve years at the Central Music School for Gifted Children of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and later became the head of the piano department at the Ippolitov-Ivanov Institute in Moscow.
In 1993, she was invited as a guest professor of piano at the Colmar Conservatory (France) to establish a department for gifted children, where she settled with her family. Alongside her work in Colmar, she also taught at the Paris National Conservatory of Music, the Rueil-Malmaison Conservatory, and the École Normale de Musique de Paris “Alfred Cortot,” where she continues to teach today.
Rena Shereshevskaya gives public masterclasses worldwide at prestigious academies and festivals in France, Switzerland, Italy, the USA, Japan, Sweden, Spain, and other countries. She is a jury member at major international piano competitions, including the Long-Thibaud Competition (France), the Santander Competition (Spain), the Geza Anda Competition (Switzerland), the Montreal Competition (Canada), the Maj Lind Competition (Finland), and others.
Her students perform on the world’s most prominent stages, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Great Hall of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, and many others.
In addition, she has published a number of articles on music education issues in French, Belgian, Russian, and other international journals.
Alongside her intense educational work, she also performs as a chamber musician with internationally renowned artists and forms a duo with her daughter, mezzo-soprano Victoria Shereshevskaya. This duo performs at numerous festivals in France and Europe. Furthermore, she is the founder and artistic director of the festival “Artistic Dynasties and Families,” which was held for many years, first in Vitré and later in Taverny, France.
Natalia Troull began her piano studies in her hometown of St. Petersburg. She later graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where her teachers included Professors Y. Zak, M. Voskresensky, and T. Kravchenko.
Her career as a pianist began in 1983 with her first prize win at the International Piano Competition in Belgrade. Her greatest success came in 1986 when she won the Silver Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, where her interpretations of Schubert and Stravinsky left a lasting impression on audiences and critics alike. In 1993, Natalia Troull was awarded the Grand Prix at the Piano Masters Competition in Monte Carlo, a competition open only to winners of international competitions.
Natalia Troull’s outstanding technical mastery and virtuosity make her a unique artist in demand worldwide. She has performed with prominent orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Monte-Carlo, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and all major Russian symphony orchestras. She has also worked with renowned conductors such as Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Raymond Leppard, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Eri Klas, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Vassily Sinaisky, and Yuri Temirkanov.
Her repertoire includes more than 50 piano concertos, with the Tchaikovsky concerto emerging as the most popular. The pianist has performed this work over 100 times in the world’s most prestigious concert halls. Among her most notable performances of the Tchaikovsky concerto are those at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Eri Klas, and at the Suntory Hall with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra under Koizumi Kazuhiro (1998-99 season). Natalia Troull’s concerts are characterized by her complete dedication to the music, her extraordinary stage presence, and her technical brilliance in delivering a wide-ranging repertoire.
Natalia Troull is regularly invited as a lecturer to the USA, Japan, Italy, Germany, and South America. She is a professor at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and serves as a permanent jury member at many international piano competitions.
Jie Yuan, an internationally acclaimed pianist recognized by China Central Television as one of the “Top Ten Chinese Pianists,” is currently the Head of the Piano Department at the Harbin Conservatory in China.
Jie has achieved remarkable success in prestigious piano competitions worldwide, winning significant awards in cities such as Hong Kong (2003), Crescendo (2005), China (2007), Shanghai (2008), Busoni (2009), Hamamatsu (2009), Berlin (2010), Dublin (2011), Van Cliburn (2013), and Casagrande (2013). His accolades include five gold medals, three silver medals, six bronze medals, and four audience choice awards across various competitions.
Jie Yuan is a dynamic presence on major international concert stages, having performed over 2,000 concerts in more than 600 cities across 40 countries. His performances have illuminated renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Salle Pleyel and Salle Cortot in Paris, Suntory Hall and Tokyo Opera City in Tokyo, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Berlin Philharmonie, Sydney Opera House, Oper Frankfurt, La Scala in Milan, Seoul Arts Center, and nearly every concert hall in China. He has collaborated with numerous top-tier orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, and many others.
He has been invited to serve as a jury member at numerous significant competitions, both national and international, including the Busoni Competition (Italy), Animato (France), Viseu (Portugal), Sydney (Australia), Gina Bachauer (USA), Seoul (Korea), Singapore, and many more. Additionally, he is the Artistic Director of the China International Piano Festival BOYA and the Lanzhou International Piano Festival.
Jie earned his Master’s degree and Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School. The New York Times has praised him as a pianist with “flawless technique and unmistakable musicality, making him an outstanding representative of his generation.”
