Jury

Riccardo Risaliti was born in Prato and studied at the Cherubini Conservatory in  Florence, as a pupil of Rio Nardi and Luigi Dallapiccola. Among his teachers were also Nikita Magaloff, Carlo Zecchi and Sergio Lorenzi.
After initially working as assistant for piano coaching and chamber music at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena  and  at the Teatro Municipale in Florence, and as a music critic (for La Nazione in Florence), he won several piano competitions (Vercelli, Seregno, etc..) and began the career of concert pianist, making his debut with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
He has played for various associations and festivals, among which feature: Teatro alla Scala, Accademia di S. Cecilia in Rome, Festival di Brescia e Bergamo, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, RAI in Rome and Turin.  As a performer of chamber music, he has often played with illustrious instrumentalists, singers and ensembles. As a soloist, he has often preferred particular repertoires (for the Ricordi label he recorded seldom played Liszt transcriptions). Recently he has experimented with contemporary music, performing some works for the first time.
He has been a teacher at the Conservatory in Pesaro, at the Milan Conservatory for 30 years since 1973, and has been professor and pedagogic advisor at the Incontri col Maestro International Piano Academy of Imola since its creation in 1989. He regularly holds master classes and summer courses at the Mozarteum of Salzburg and at the Festival delle Nazioni of Città di Castello. A scholar of piano literature and interpretation, he holds conferences and seminars. He also works as a journalist and editor of musical texts, and is often invited by international piano competitions as jury member.

Oxana Yablonskaya is an American-Israeli pianist who has    an active international performing career since the early 1960s. Born in Moscow,Yablonskaya was a pupil of    Anaida Sumbatyan at the    Moscow Central School for the Gifted where she studied from the ages of six through sixteen. She then pursued further studies at the Moscow Conservatory with legendary    Alexander Goldenweiser and became a first student of    Dmitry Bashkirov, whom Goldenweiser just invited to teach as his Assistant. She was a student of Tatiana Nikolayeva in her Doctorate program. After graduating from the conservatory in 1965, she joined the school's piano faculty. She went on to win top prizes in the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in 1963, Rio de Janeiro Piano Competition in 1965 and the Vienna Beethoven Competition in 1969.
Yablonskaya was invited to perform as soloist and    with orchestras    in concert halls in the West during the 1960s and 1970s, but was never allowed to accept invitations. She performed throughout the USSR and made numerous recordings on the Melodya label. She was named a "Soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic" and was    highly active as a soloist with the Bolshoi Orchestra.
 
Frustrated by the    limitations of her artistic freedom ,she emigrated to the United States in 1977, but only after two years of waiting as “ Refusnik” ,stripped of her job at the Moscow Conservatory and concert career. 75 prominent musicians, actors, composers, senators,including Leonard Bernstein, Kathryn    Hepburn, Shelly Winters, Henry Miller, Isaak Bashevis-Singer ( Nobel Prize Winner) and even President Carter appealed to the Soviet government to let her leave .

 Described by The New York Times as an "internationally known virtuoso" and "one of the country's most distinguished musical residents", Yablonskaya has toured in concerts and recitals throughout the world and has made numerous recordings. She taught as a member of the piano faculty at the Juilliard School for more than 25 years, until 2009.

 Yablonskaya is the Winner of Grand Prix du Disque from the Liszt Society in Budapest for her recording of music by Schubert-Liszt and Liszt. Oxana Yablonskaya is an Honorary Academician of the International Academy of the Arts at the United Nations, International Academy of the Arts in San Francisco and Independent Academy of Liberal Arts at the Russian Academy of Sciences. She is recipient of the Einstein Medal for Outstanding Achievements in the Arts.
Besides active concert and teaching career , Ma. Yablonskaya made editions for International Music Co. in New York.

In 2016 Prof. Yablonskaya came to Israel, where she now lives and teaches at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and continues to dazzle audiences throughout Israel and abroad. 

Energy, expression and emotion characterise Austrian top pianist Markus Schirmer’s music-making
No matter where he tours he receives audience acclaim for his charismatic musicianship and his ability to tell vivid stories with the instrument. One of his reviews sums him up precisely: “A pied piper on the piano…music that comes straight from the heart, the brain and the fingertips.”
After intense studies with Rudolf Kehrer, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling or Paul Badura-Skoda the Graz born artist went on to win numerous prizes and honours and to take a number of major concert halls and festivals by storm: the Wiener Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Herkulessaal and Philharmonie am Gasteig/Munich, Suntory Hall/Tokyo, Wigmore Hall/London, Gewandhaus/Leipzig, Philharmonie and Konzerthaus/Berlin, Rudolfinum/Prague, Palais des Beaux Arts/Brussels, Finlandia Hall/Helsinki, Teatro Teresa Carreño/Caracas, Palau de la Musica/Valencia, Victoria Hall/Geneva, Festspielhaus/Baden-Baden, Teatro Olimpico/Vicenza, Megaron/Athens, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival, Festival international de piano “La Roque d´Antheron“, Ruhr Piano Festival, “Stars of White Nights Festival” St.Petersburg, Festival pianistico internazionale "Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli" Brescia, Vilnius Festival, Kissinger Sommer, styriarte, Bregenz Festival, Schubertiade, ISCM Music Festival and many more.
He has worked with renowned orchestras: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra St.Petersburg, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Vienna, Munich, Leipzig, Sofia, Borusan Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, Adam Fischer, Sir Neville Marriner, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Jukka Pekka Saraste, Marie Jacquot, Sir Charles Mackerras, Michael Gielen, John Axelrod, Fabio Luisi, Philippe Entremont, James Judd, Paul Goodwin, Michael Gielen and Philippe Jordan among others.
He adores Schubert above all but is also enthusiastic about more obscure works such as Britten’s ironic piano concerto, the transcendental solo piano oeuvre of Szymanowski or "Castelli Romani", an epic piano concerto by Joseph Marx.
Chamber music plays an important role in his work and his partners have included Renaud Capuçon, Julian Rachlin, Vadim Repin, Benjamin Schmid, Sharon Kam, Nils Mönkemeyer, Christian Poltéra, Konstantin Krimmel, Angela Hewitt, Mnozil Brass, the Ensemble Wien-Berlin, the Hagen Quartet, the Jerusalem Quartet, the Artis Quartet and many more.

His love affair with the unusual, his daring and his eagerness to explore new territories ensure the development of sensational events outside the traditional classical repertoire:
- SCURDIA is an improvisation project which brings together extraordinary musicians from all over the world on one stage, thus allowing new artistic and creative energies to be set free by bridging various cultures.
- Markus Schirmer has great pleasure in working with actors, combining literature and music, and has developed unusual programs which are celebrated by audience and critics alike.
In collaboration with the American singer and actress Helen Schneider f.e. he presented his own adaptation of Kurt Weill’s ”The Seven Deadly Sins” for voice and piano.
For his exceptional artistic diversity Markus Schirmer was awarded the “Music Manual Award“ and is a recipient of some of Austria’s most prestigious awards, the Karl Böhm Interpretation Prize and the “Ehrenzeichen für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst”.
He received the German Record Critics’ Award for his debut CD of Schubert Sonatas.
Further recordings including works by Haydn, Beethoven, Ravel, Mussorgsky and his strongly acclaimed outing “The Mozart Sessions” together with the uplifting US chamber orchestra A FAR CRY have won numerous international prizes.
In the upcoming season he will be performing at many festivals and concert series in Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Denmark, the US, Japan, China, South Corea, Sweden, Brazil, the Kosovo and Austria.
In addition to his work as a very successful Professor of Piano at the Music University in his hometown Graz - many of his students are acclaimed prizewinners - Markus Schirmer regularly gives international masterclasses for piano and is a sought after adjudicator at several prestigious piano competitions.
Furthermore, Markus Schirmer is artistic director of the international music festival ARSONORE, which every September invites world class musicians to perform in the Hall of Planets at Eggenberg Castle (UNESCO World Cultural Heritage) in Graz/Austria.

Born in Bari, she began the study of music at a very young age, integrating her classical studies with regular classes of Piano, Organ and Organ Composition at the “Niccolò Piccinni” Conservatoire of Bari.
Graduated with distinction in Piano, under the prestigious guidance of Michele Marvulli , at Conservatory of Bari, highly significant for her education and success they were also the esteems earned from great artists such as Franco Ferrara, Aldo Ferraresi, Lazar Bermann, Aldo Ciccolini, Noretta Conci Leech and particularly Nino Rota who appointed her as full-time piano teacher. Her concert activity as a solo pianist has taken her to perform in many Italian and foreign cities, with widespread success among the public. She also boasts an intense piano activity within various chamber music formations (duo, trio, quintet), with instrumentalists and singers. For several years she was opera couch conductor at the Petruzzelli Theatre of Bari.
She has played in Italy, Jugoslavia, Austria, Romania, Hungary, Poland, France, Germany , Finland and South America.
From 1977 to 2003 she was a permanent component of the Ferrari-Valente Piano Duo, which imposed itself in a number of national and international contests: “Belgrade”, “Casagrande”, “Alessandria”. In a duo formation (with recitals and concertos for two pianos with orchestra) she has held an intense activity in many Italian and foreign towns, playing monographic programmes and the integral of CLEMENTI, MOZART, BRAHMS, RACHMANINOFF, DEBUSSY, RAVEL, POULENC, and also contemporary repertoire:Luciano Berio – concerto for two pianos and orchestra, Bela Bartok – sonata for two pianos and percussion . Again in a piano duo she has performed live on RAI 1 and on various radio and TV programmes.
In her solo recitals, and with the new piano duo Valente-Larosa, she has often given a tone of specificity with either monographic or monothematic programmes or subject-based programmes or programmes with didactic purposes such as “the sonata form”, “ the transcription”, the “form of dance” and others, all introduced by lectures or listening guide.
She has been Art Director of the cultural and musical Association “Centro Studi Franz Liszt” RESEARCH@PRESS; now is president of Association Mozart Italy place of work of Bari. Already professor of piano at the “N. Piccinni” Conservatoire, she has taught to well-known pianists, among which a substantial number of teachers at various Italian Conservatoires and/or Music Academies. In the framework of her versatile activity, finally, Giovanna Valente gives seminars and specialisation courses in renowned Italian and foreign Academies, being regularly invited to be part the juries of international and national piano Contests.

Boris Bekhterev was born to a family of musicians. He began studying music at the age of five and was educated at Moscow’s Gnessin School of Music, being awarded a medal of merit at his graduation. He continued to improve his mastery until attaining a doctorate with outstanding results at Moscow’s Tchaikowsky Conservatoire, studying under the famous Maestro J. Milstein.
In 1970, having won first prize in the Soviet Pianists’ Competition, he began giving concerts both as a soloist and in duo with the outstanding violinist Vladimir Spivakov. Boris Bekhterev has played at some of the most prestigious concert halls in the Soviet Union, in Europe: Vienna’s Konzerthaus, The Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, La Scala Theatre in Milan, in the United States: New York’s Carnegie Hall, in Japan and other nations. He boasts a very wide repertoire, which extends from the baroque style of Bach and Scarlatti, through Classicism and Romanticism, touching on French Impressionist culture, and arriving at the modern and contemporary composers. A large part of his repertoire consists of works by Russian composers. He has played with many orchestras in the Soviet Union and with chamber orchestras such as the Virtuosi of Moscow, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra of Budapest and the Prague Chamber Orchestra.
From 1972 to 1986 he taught at the Moscow Conservatoire. During that time, he also ran the Académie Internationale of Tours (France) advanced courses for four years.
From 1987 to 1996, Boris Bekhterev lived in Italy, where he continued to pursue his activities as a concert pianist, giving recitals and playing chamber music with violinists Boris Belkin, Uto Ughi and Pavel Berman, with the flutist, Maxence Larrieu, as well as teaching in various Master Classes. For several years, he has been a member of the “Trio Cesar Franck” (together with the violinist Felice Cusano, and the cellist Susan Moses) and gave concerts in Italy and in the United States.
In 1996 he was invited by Kobe College in Japan to be Professor of Piano and since 1998 he has been teaching also at Mukogawa University. During the 15 years he lived in Japan, he often played recitals and chamber music with well-known musicians from Japan and other countries as well as Lieder programs with famous singers.
He has been invited regularly to be part of the jury of important international competitions. In Japan he was part of the Jury of the most important piano competition in Tokyo “Mainichi Shimbun” for 7 years.
His records have enjoyed a good deal of success. Published by “Melodia” and EMI, they include Schubert’s sonatas, some rarely performed pieces by Prokofiev as well as many works performed together with Vladimir Spivakov. From 1994 to 2003 he recorded 6 CDs of Russian and European music for Phoenix Classics. Since then he has been recording for Camerata Tokyo, Japan. Eight CDs with music of Skriabin and Medtner have been released and have enjoyed very good reviews.
In 2015 he completed recording of all Skriabin compositions for piano solo.
Since 2011 he is back in Italy where he continues his pedagogic and artistic life.