JURY
Born in Prague, he studied at the Prague Conservatory of Music, founded in 1880, and at the Musical Academy of the University of Prague under masters Rauch and Palenicek. At a very young age, he participated in numerous International Piano Competitions such as the Chopin Competition, Concorso A. Casella always obtaining prizes and awards that launched him to a brilliant international career. Known as a performer of the highest level, he has toured the Czech Republic throughout Europe, North and South America, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Japan, India and Hong Kong. Artistic Director of the TT Music Festival in Loucen, he is often called as a jury member in many International Piano Competitions such as: Busoni, Viotti Naples, Palermo, Senigallia, Madrid, Porto, Johannesburg, Belgrade, Zagreb, etc. Professor of piano at the Prague Conservatory of Music, since 1965, founder of the 4-hands piano duo with his wife Helena. Collaborated with the Music Academy in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Zagreb, giving Piano Masterclasses. He currently gives MasterClasses all over Europe, in North and South America Japan, Hong Kong.
Born in Busto Garolfo (Mi), he was initiated to the study of piano by his father. Soon after, he attended the prestigious Barese piano school studying with masters P. Camicia and V. Ferrari, graduating from the Conservatorio N. Piccinni and and graduating from the Istituti di Alta Formazione Artistica del conservatorio "DUNI" in Matera in the II Level course with a Compositional and Interpretive focus in Pianoforte with highest honors. He later continued to perfect his pianistic skills with distinguished masters such as Philip Lorenz of the University Fresno of Music in Los Angeles and François Noel Thiollier. He has been the winner of important National and International piano competitions both as a soloist and in chamber ensembles, and has performed and still performs as a soloist for important Music Associations in various Italian and European cities, always gaining unanimous acclaim from audiences and critics. He has performed with Italian and foreign orchestras such as the A.GI.MUS Orchestra (Italy), "Accademia di Tirana" (Albania), "Orchestra dell'Accademia Musicale Pescarese l'Orchestra Sinfonica della Provincia di Bari ecc. He has held piano master classes at the HINDEMITH Academy in BLUNEY (Switzerland) and in Italy at the XXVII COURSE OF MUSICAL INTERPRETATION CITTA' DI NORCIA; he is called to serve on juries of piano competitions in Italy and abroad. He teaches Principal Piano at the conservatory "Niccolò Piccinni" in Bari.
A multidisciplinary cultural personality, he is known for his groundbreaking artistic activity and cultural projects created and managed over time. Werner Schulze, a composer and professor at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, who teaches conducting to maestro Kirill Petrenko, believes that "the name Cristian Lupeș is synonymous with a guarantee of total success for the interpretation of contemporary scores." Born in Onești, he studied physics-chemistry at Babeș-Bolyai University (Cluj) and the University of Bucharest. Since 1999, he studied at the National University of Music Bucharest (UNMB) and became a doctor of music at UNMB in 2012, with the thesis "Scientific Parameters of Interpretation." He attended master classes at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (University of Music Vienna) in 2004 and 2005. In 2010 he became assistant conductor of the Bamberger Symphonikern Staatsphilharmonie, with Jonathan Nott, and the Tonhalle Zurich, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Geneva, Orchestra Rundfunk Berlin, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. He is the artistic director of the first new music festival in Romania. He is a constant guest of the George Enescu International Festival, collaborating with: Deutschekammer Philharmonie Bremen, Orchestre Île-de-France, Bucharest Festival Orchestra, Sibiu Philharmonic and "Mihail Jora" Philharmonic of Bacău, Royal Chamber. Since August 2019, he has been the conductor of the Sibiu State Philharmonic.
He is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro, as well as Artistic Director of the Santa Cecilia International Competition (CISC) and Director of the Curso de Música Silva Monteiro (CMSM). Álvaro Teixeira Lopes attended the Conservatório de Música do Porto and continued his studies in Vienna and Paris as a member of the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and the Austrian government and Secretary of State for Culture. A recipient of numerous awards, he has been active nationally and internationally as a soloist and chamber musician and has been invited to play at some of the most prestigious international festivals. He has directed numerous courses in piano interpretation and pedagogy in Portugal and Salerno, Italy. Frequently invited to serve on piano competition commissions, he was a jury member of the 11th, 15th and 20th International Piano Competition of the City of Porto.
A pianist and composer from Trentino, he graduated in piano with highest honors from the Conservatories of Trento (Maddalena Giese) and Rotterdam (Aquiles Delle Vigne), later specializing with Arnaldo Cohen, Lazar Berman, Andras Schiff, Leonid Margarius. He graduated in composition with highest honors from the Conservatory of Trento, later perfecting with Alexander Müllenbach, Azio Corghi, Luis Bacalov. He received his PhD in Musicology with highest honors. He has been performing regularly for decades in Italy and Europe, as a pianist (soloist and in chamber ensembles, with programs of both classical and contemporary music and jazz) and as a composer (with numerous performances of his own works). He is often invited as a jury member in national and international piano and composition competitions. He has taught at the Giudicarie Music School and the conservatories of Verona, Padua, Trento, Siena, Frosinone, Riva del Garda, and Darfo-Brescia. He currently holds the professorship of. Reading the score at the Conservatory of Vicenza. He is founder and president of the Ars Modi Association, for which he is in charge of the artistic direction of numerous music festivals in Trentino-South Tyrol.
She possesses uncommon instrumental qualities and is endowed with a quivering, poetic sensibility that draws the audience in. This is how la stampa specialized defines the pianist Carla Aventaggiato who has specialized with Maestros Sergio Cafaro,Antonio Bacchelli, Novin Afrouz, Aldo Ciccolini, François Joël Thiollier and Marisa Somma. Awarded in several National and International Competitions, she carries out an intense concert activity, both as a soloist and in piano duo formation, which has led her to give concerts in prestigious Cultural Associations in Italy (Milan-Circolo della Stampa, Cosenza-Teatro Rendano, Bari Teatro Piccinni, Ravello-Villa Rufolo, Matera, Salerno, Turin, Udine, Rome, Florence, etc.) and abroad (Spain, Romania, Germany, Croatia, etc.). Regularly invited to serve on judging commissions of national and international piano competitions, she is artistic director of the National Piano Competition "City of Casamassima", of the "Amadeus" Music Association of Casamassima and of the International Piano Competition "City of Acquaviva delle Fonti - "Premio Giovanni Colafemmina". He teaches principal piano at the Conservatory of Music "N. Piccinni" in Bari.
He graduated with highest honors from the "Niccolò Piccini" Conservatory of Music in Bari under Marisa Somma continuing his studies with Novin Afrouz, Paul Badura Skoda, Aldo Ciccolini e François-Joël Thiollier. He made his debut at the age of seventeen at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, since then a brilliant concert career has followed, both as soloist and in piano duo with his wife Carla Aventaggiato, and has played for important musical associations in prestigious venues, earning acclaim from audiences and critics everywhere. Awarded prizes in numerous national and international piano competitions. Regularly invited to serve on judging panels of national and international piano competitions, he is artistic director( together with his wife Carla Aventaggiato) of the International Piano Competition City of Acquaviva delle Fonti - Premio Giovanni Colafemmina Studies "Giovanni Colafemmina" of Acquaviva delle Fonti. A professor of principal piano at the "N. Piccini" Conservatory of Bari, he has been teaching since the age of eighteen, and his thirty years of experience is comforted by the success of many of his students in competitions and concerts. He regularly holds Masterclasses and Seminars.
