Jury members

Russian pianist Dmitri Alexeev is one of the world's most highly regarded artists. His critically praised recitals on the world's leading concert stages and his concert appearances with the most prestigious orchestras have secured his position as one of "the most remarkable pianists of the day" (Daily Telegraph). He has performed in the major concert halls around the world with most of great orchestras such as Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Concertgebouw, all London orchestras etc. under many celebrated conductors (Giulini, Ashkenazy, Boulez, Muti, Pappano, Temirkanov, Rozhdestvensky, Jansons,Gergiev,Tennstedt among others).

Badalbayli Farhad Shamsi is a People’s Artist of Azerbaijan, People’s Artist of USSR, professor, pianist and a composer. He was born on 12 December 1947 in Baku, Azerbaijan. In 1965-1969 Farhad Badalbayli studied at the Azerbaijan State Conservatory (class of M.R. Brenner). In 1969-1971 he passed his post-graduate stage at Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky (class of B.Davidovich).

Steinway Artist Hsing-Chwen Giselle Hsin is a piano professor and Director of the Institute of Music at the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. She has given master classes internationally, such as at Portugal’s Coimbra World Piano Meeting, Germany’s SRIMF, England’s Royal Northern College of Music, and Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Singapore. As a concerto soloist, she has performed with major orchestras in Taiwan including the National Symphony Orchestra (among the performances is Taiwan’s premier of Scriabin’s Piano Concerto), the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Philharmonic, and National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and orchestras of Hong Kong (HK Philharmonic), China (Guangzhou and Hunan), USA, England, and Switzerland; as a recitalist, she regularly performs in the National Concert Hall, Taipei, and has live recorded several recitals on Australia and Hong Kong’s radio stations. Among published CDs, her recording of Mozart, Ravel and Chopin, published by Decca of Taiwan, has resulted in the selection of Editor's Choice in the All Music Magazine.

Professor (emeritus) of piano and chamber music, the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Tel Aviv University. Served as chairman of piano department and as deputy director of the School. Member of the teaching faculty, the Barenboim-Said Academy, Berlin. Co-founder (1991), artisitic director and faculty member, the annual Tel-Hai Intenational Piano Master Classes in Israel. Faculty, International Keyboard Institute and Festival, New York (since 2007). Born in Vilnius, Lithuania. Studied at the conservatory there, the Rubin Academy of Music, Tel Aviv University (with Mindru Katz), and the Juilliard School in New York (with Ilona Kabos, Guido Agosti, and Ania Dorfmann), where earned B. Mus., M. Mus., and DMA degrees. Also worked with Aube Tzerko at Aspen Festival.

Tomer Lev enjoys an unusually versatile career as soloist, chamber musician and pedagogue. As concert pianist Tomer Lev performed extensively throughout Europe, North America, South America, the Near East and the Far East. As soloist he collaborated with such orchestras as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the symphony orchestras of Hamburg, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Tanglewood Festival, Varna Festival, Colorado, Quebec, Kiev and many others, including all major Israeli orchestras. He was presented at the Lincoln Center in New York, the Philharmonie Hall in Berlin, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Beijing Concert Hall, the Municipal Theater of Shanghai, Hamburg's Musikhalle, the Rudolfinum in Prague, Sala Sao Paulo, Glen Gould Hall in Toronto; as well as in all Israeli concert halls, including the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem Henri Crown Symphony Hall, Haifa Auditorium, among others.

Arie Vardi is one of the greatest pianists of Israel. After winning the Chopin Competition in Israel and the Enescu Competition in Bucharest, he concerted world-wide as a soloist with nearly all major orchestras, amongst others under the direction of Paul Paray, Zubin Mehta, David Zinman and Kurt Masur. His repertoire includes the complete piano concerts of Bach and Mozart as well as the complete works of Debussy and Ravel. Many of his RCA CDs won international awards. Arie Vardi teaches as a professor at the Rubin Academy of Music / Tel Aviv University and since 1987 at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover (university for music and theatre Hanover). More than thirty of his students won first prices at major international competitions. As a juror, he is active in many important competitions, amongst others in in Bejing, Cleveland, Hamamatsu, Leeds, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Salt Lake City, Santander, Sydney, Tokyo, Vienna and Warsaw.

Born in Israel, Asaf Zohar is one of the most sought after Israeli pianists and pedagogues. Asaf Zohar is a graduate of the Givatayim Conservatory and Tel-Aviv University the Rubin Academy of Music (currently known as The Buchmann-Mehta School of Music). He received his doctoral degree from the Indiana University School of Music, where he has also been a visiting lecturer. His teachers include Hana Shalgi, Arie Vardi, Menahem Pressler, Leonard Hokanson and Michele Block. Artists for whom he has performed in masterclasses include Arthur Rubinstein, Alfred Brendel, Christoph Eschenbach, Eugene Istomin, Leon Fleisher and Claude Frank.