Jury

Jan JIRACEK VON ARNIM, Chairman

Born into a family of musicians, pianist Jan Jiracek von Arnim was described by BBC Music Magazine as one of the leading pianists of his generation. A top prize winner at the Busoni Competition (Italy) and Maria Canals Competition (Spain), Jan Jiracek von Arnim was one of the winners of the Tenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (USA). He regularly performs in musical centers such as the Musikverein Vienna, Philharmonie Berlin, Suntory Hall Tokyo, and others.

He was appointed professor for piano at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts (mdw) in Austria in 2001, making him the youngest tenured professor in the history of that school. His students are prizewinners of major international piano competitions, e.g. in 2021 first prize winner at “Géza Anda” (Switzerland), 2020 first prize winner at “Unisa” (South Africa), 2019 first prize winner of the “Top of the World” (Norway) and Tucumán International Piano Competition (Argentina), 2018 first prize at the “Maria Canals Barcelona”.

Jan Jiracek von Arnim is currently guest professor at the Elisabeth University of Music in Hiroshima and at the China Conservatory in Beijing. He was visiting professor at Yale School of Music in 2022 – 2023.  He gives master classes on a regular basis in North America, Asia and Europe. From 2017 – 2023, he was teaching the annual “Beethovenkurs” as successor to legendary pianist Wilhelm Kempff at the “Casa Orfeo” in Positano, Italy, teaching selected international piano talents on the German and Austrian traditions of Beethoven interpretation.

Recent projects include performances and teaching activities at the 2024 summer academy of Mozarteum Salzburg, 2024 Chopin Festival in Duszniki, Poland, the 2024 Tianjin Juilliard Piano Festival in China, the 2024 International Piano Festival in Hangzhou China, as well as several masterclasses in Japan and a tour with piano concertos by Mozart in South Africa 2024.

His biography on Franz Liszt (Residenz Verlag, Austria) has been described as “probably the very best Liszt biography” by the renowned newspaper DIE PRESSE, Austria.
Jan Jiracek von Arnim is a scholarship holder of prestigious foundations, such as the “Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes”. He was named “Paul Harris Fellow” of Rotary Foundation in 2020. He is also honorary citizen of Fredericksburg, Texas (USA).

Since 2011, he is the Artistic Director and Chairman of the “International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna”.

Hung-Kuan CHEN

Pianist Hung-Kuan Chen’s career – as well as his life — has been a vivid example of the concept of yin-and-yang. In that Chinese philosophy, apparent opposites are actually complementary: each fulfills a need in the other; one cannot exist without the other. Mr. Chen embodies a synthesis of seeming opposites that coalesce into a unique artistic personality.

Hung-Kuan Chen was born in Taipei and raised in Germany. He established a strong connection to Germanic Classicism in his early studies which he integrated with the sensibility of organic Chinese philosophy. “I’m Chinese by birth,” he says, “but I’m actually more European. I’ve read and studied a tremendous amount of the great literature and language of Germany.”

Mr. Chen has performed in many of the world’s foremost concert venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, the Tonhalle in Zürich, the Herkulesaal in Munich, the Sala Verdi in Milan, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, National Concert Hall in Taipei, Shanghai Concert Hall and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. He was the first to perform the Rachmaninoff Third and Beethoven Fourth Piano Concertos in Taipei, and gave the Shanghai premiere of the Bartók Second Piano Concerto.

One of the most honored pianists of his generation, Mr. Chen won top prizes in the Arthur Rubinstein, Busoni, and Geza Anda International Piano Competitions, and in the Young Concert Artists International Piano Auditions. He also won prizes in the Queen Elisabeth, Montreal International Musical and Van Cliburn International Piano Competitions, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Hung-Kuan Chen has enjoyed fruitful artistic collaborations with, among others, Christoph Eschenbach,Hans Graf, George Cleve, Joseph Silverstein, David Shifrin, Roman Totenberg, ChoLiang Lin, the ShanghaiQuartet, Sui Lan and Andrew Parrott. His most meaningful artistic partnership is with his wife, TemaBlackstone, with whom he frequently performs as a piano duo.

Hundreds of students worldwide have benefitted from Hung-Kuan Chen’s knowledge and love of music.“Teaching and performing complement each other,” he declares. “Teaching is sharing, and by sharing, our search continues in a more objective way. When I share, I become the beneficiary of the results of the investigation and the continued questioning. This benefits my playing, as I’m often coming up with new ideas and insights.”

Mr. Chen is currently on the faculty of The Juilliard School and is a visiting professor at Yale, and is also on the faculty for Artemisia Akademie at Yale. He previously served as Chair of the piano department of Shanghai Conservatory, and was on the faculty of New England Conservatory. He has adjudicated prominent international piano competitions such as the Van Cliburn, Busoni, Shanghai, and Honens.

Among notable pianists he has taught or coached are Yuja Wang, Sean Chen and Niu Niu.

In 1992, Hung-Kuan Chen suffered a hand injury which caused neurological damage and eventually resulted in focal dystonia. Through meditation and his own unique research, he was able to heal and return to his life as a concert artist. His first post- accident solo recital in 1998 received rave reviews and he was described as a transformed artist.

 Mr. Chen addresses his extraordinary journey in these terms: “What gave me the drive and courage to find a cure? On one side was the curiosity about the human body, awareness and consciousness; and on the other, my desire to continue my art. This was the biggest learning curve I had ever encountered. It meant having to detach from ego and ambition. It taught me to embrace all that comes to me and be extremely grateful…to notice the tiny things – those details which create a full life and are often missed by most people. To be ‘in the moment’ sounds clichéd but is not. And as part of the search for meaning, the joy of being able to play again – that was a true miracle.”

Hieyon CHOI

One of the most sought-after pianists of her generation, South Korean pianist HieYon Choi first appeared on the international piano music scene when she won prizes at high-profile competitions such as Kapell, Epinal, Busoni and Viotti. HieYon Choi has been since performing with prestigious orchestras of Europe, US and Korea such as das Rundfunkorchester Berlin, the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington DC), the Northern Sinfonia, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the Korean Broadcast Symphony Orchestra and appears as a soloist in festivals and concert series.

Alongside the canon of the classical piano literature such as Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Debussy, Music of 20^th & 21^st century forms another important part of Choi’s career. A strong advocate of the new music, she was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence of Tong-Yeong International Music festival. She performed works of Olivier Messiaen, György Kurtag, Sofia Gubaidulina, York Höller, Unsuk Chin, Suhki Kang a. o. with the Seoul Philharmonic.

Recently Choi completed her long journey of recording entire Beethoven piano sonatas. Her first two Beethoven albums were released in 2018 and in 2021 retrospectively by Decca Korea and UMG and highly acclaimed by German and Korean magazine/papers. The entire set of Beethoven piano sonatas are to be released in the upcoming year. Choi appeared and performed in TV & radio channels in Korea, US, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and in Germany.

Born in Inchon, South Korea, Choi gave her debut concert at the age of 6 with the Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra. She won all four most coveted competitions in Korea (Dong-A, Choong-Ang, Korea Times, Ehwa-KyungHyang) under the early tutelage of Prof. Joong-Won Koh and moved to Germany at the age of 18 to study with Prof. Klaus Hellwig at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin. The late Prof. Hans Leygraf at the same institute and the late Prof. György Sebök at Indiana University were further source of inspiration to her.

In 2023/24 HieYon Choi joined the piano faculty at Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, after having served for 24 years as tenured piano professor at Seoul National University. Choi has been giving numerous master classes worldwide; the Guildhall School in London, Ecole Normale in Paris, Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Hochschule Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Düsseldorf in Germany, Music School of Manhattan, Cincinnati, Michigan in the US, Performing Arts Hong-Kong, China and in summer festivals in Italy, France, Korea and in the US. Choi also serves as a jury member at international competitions such as Beethoven, Maj Lind, Pozzoli, Epinal and Orléans.

Ingrid FLITER

Sofya GULYAK

In September 2009 Sofya Gulyak was awarded the 1st prize and the Princess Mary Gold Medal at the Sixteenth Leeds International Piano Competition – the first woman in the history of the competition to achieve this distinction. Since then she has appeared all over the world to great acclaim. Her recital programs are frequently reviewed in superlatives, and her concerto appearances with major orchestras are noted in glowing terms by the world’s music press. Sofya has been praised for her “tremendous precision and coloration…exquisite soft playing …with delicacy” and described as a “Rach star”(Washington Post). Sofya Gulyak’s resume includes prizes from many prestigious piano competitions: she is a 1st prize winner of William Kapell International Piano Competition in the USA, Maj Lind Helsinki International Piano Competition, Tivoli Piano Competition in Copenhagen, Isang Yun International Piano Competition in South Korea, San Marino Piano Competition, winner of Busoni Competition in Italy and prize winner of Marguerite Long Piano Competition in Paris. Recitals and concert appearances have been numerous, with Sofya Gulyak having performed all over the globe in such venues as La Scala Theatre and Sala Verdi in Milan, Herculessaal in Munich, Salle Cortot, Salle Gaveau and Salle Pleyel in Paris, Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall in London, Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Kennedy Center in Washington, Palais de la Musique in Strasbourg, Hong Kong City Hall, Shanghai Grand Theatre, Tokyo Opera City Hall, Osaka Symphony Hall, Musashino Cultural Centre in Tokyo, National Hungarian Opera in Budapest, National Forum of Music in Wroclaw, Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, Teatro Municipal and Cidade des Artes in Rio de Janeiro, Auditorium Manzoni in Bologna, Salle Molière in Lyon, Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, King Theatre in Rabat, Kursaal in Bern, Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen etc..

Sofya Gulyak appeared as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony, Saint-Petersburg Philharmonic, Rio de Janeiro Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North, Orchestra dell’ Arena di Verona, Orchestra Filarmonica di Bologna, Budapest Philharmonic, Enescu Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Slovak Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Copenhagen Symphony, Ulster Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Shanghai Philharmonic, NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Oulu Philharmonic, Leipzig Philharmonic, Pensacola Symphony, Tatarstan Symphony, Philippines Philharmonic, Morocco Philharmonic and others. She collaborated with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sakari Oramo, Mark Elder, David Hill, Donald Runnicle, Vasily Petrenko, Carlo Rizzi, Alexander Lazarev, Alan Buribayev, Eiving Gullberg Jensen, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Theodor Guschlbauer, Giancarlo Guerrero, Rory McDonald, Danail Rachev, Fabio Mastrangelo, Michele Mariotti, Marat Bisengaliev, Fuat Mansurov, Alexander Sladkovsky, Daria Stasevska, Eiji Oue, Mario Kosik, Jesus Medina, Christian Zimmermann, Peter Rubardt and others.

The festivals in which Sofya Gulyak participated include Klavier Ruhr Festival, Chopin Festival in Duszniki-Zdroj, Festival de Sceaux, International Keyboard Festival in New York, International Strasbourg Festival, Busoni Festival, Harrogate Festival, “Joy of Music festival” in Hong Kong, Kraków Piano Festival, New Zealand Piano Festival, Ravello Festival, Festival Chopin in Paris, Shanghai International Piano Festival and many others.

Sofya Gulyak recorded for Champs Hill Records and Piano Classics labels. Her recordings received  5 stars review in Diapason magazine (“What a pleasure to hear the piano blossoming and projecting in the most vivid of ways when played by Sofya Gulyak. The singing sound alongside dazzling and powerful execution distinguishes an outstanding natural pianist”), glowing reviews from “Gramophone” (“This is a stunning debut album…”) and “Guardian” magazines (“Sofya Gulyak is a fearless pianist, never afraid to scale the most technically demanding heights of the repertoire and equally proud to wear her heart on her sleeve”), American Record Guide (“The Handel Variations is among the top contenders on record. She keeps you on the edge of your seat, as the music presses ever forward. Sometimes I was reminded of the young Argerich”) , “Fanfare” magazine (“Her musicality is beautifully attuned to the spirit of Brahms…I must praise Kazan-born Russian pianist Sofya Gulyak, whose impressive reading places a stronger emphasis than Perahia’s on the continuity of the variations…She’s a natural Brahmsian whatever his moods.”) …  CD with the Chaconnes for piano was released on Champs Hill records (“…A fascinating collection, superbly realised and beautifully recorded…”-Artdesk; “Gulyak is a musician of exceptional depth and profundity, and a pianist with seemingly unlimited technical resources… I can’t wait to hear more of her…Of particular note are her beautiful versions of the Nielsen, the Casella, a ferocious Busoni Toccata, and a sparkling account of the Handel Chaconne.”-Fanfare Magazine)

As chamber musician Sofya Gulyak collaborated with Wihan, Chilingirian, Arianna quartets, Quartetto di Venezia, soloists of English Chamber orchestra, violinists Olivier Charlie and Marianne Piketty, viola player Tatjana Masurenko, baritone Loa Falkman, cellists Quirine Viersen and Yuki Ito (with whom she recorded a CD of Rachmaninoff’s music for Champs Hill Records).

Sofya Gulyak is a native of Kazan (Russia) where she studied in a Special Music College under Nailya Khakimova, and then in Kazan State Conservatoire under Professor Elfiya Burnasheva. After that she continued her studies at the Piano Academy “Incontri col Maestro” (Imola, Italy) with Boris Petrushansky and at the Royal College of Music in London with Vanessa Latarche. Sofya Gulyak attended as a jury member of the international piano competitions in Italy, Serbia, France, Germany, Russia, Greece, United States, China, South Korea, Singapore etc. and was invited to teach master classes in China, Italy, Austria, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Hong Kong, Mexico, USA, Canada, Germany.

Over decade she has been a professor of piano at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2023 she was appointed  an associate professor at Jacobs school of Music at Indiana University.

Her playing has been broadcast on radio and TV in Russia, Poland, France, Italy, Germany, United States, Finland, Denmark, Serbia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, United Kingdom (BBC3 and BBC4) and other countries.

Robert LEVIN

Pianist and conductor Robert Levin has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and Asia, appearing with the orchestras of Atlanta, Berlin, Birmingham, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, Montreal, Philadelphia, Toronto, Utah and Vienna on the Steinway and with the Academy of Ancient Music, the English Baroque Soloists, the Handel & Haydn Society, the London Classical Players, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique on period pianos. Renowned for his improvised cadenzas in Classical period repertoire, Robert Levin has made recordings of a wide range of repertoire for Bridge, DG Archiv, Decca/London, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, ECM, Hänssler, Hyperion, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Le Palais des Dégustateurs, New York Philomusica, Philips and SONY Classical. His recordings include Bach’s complete keyboard concertos, the six English Suites and both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier (Hänssler Edition Bachakademie); a Mozart concerto cycle with Christopher Hogwood, Richard Egarr, Bojan Čičić, Ya-Fei Chuang, and Laurence Cummings with the Academy of Ancient Music for Decca/Oiseau Lyre and AAM; the Beethoven concertos with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique for DG Archiv; the complete piano music of Dutilleux for ECM; Bernard Rands’ Preludes and Impromptu for Bridge; and the complete Beethoven sonatas and variations for fortepiano and ’cello with Steven Isserlis for Hyperion. Recent releases include the six Bach Partitas (Grand Prix International du Disque) and the complete Schubert piano trios with Noah Bendix-Balgley and Peter Wiley (Le Palais des Dégustateurs), and the complete Mozart sonatas on Mozart’s Walter piano (ECM).

A passionate advocate of new music, Robert Levin has commissioned and premiered numerous of works, including Joshua Fineberg’s Veils (2001), John Harbison’s Second Sonata (2003), Yehudi Wyner’s piano concerto Chiavi in mano (Pulitzer Prize, 2006), Bernard Rands’ Preludes (2007), Thomas Oboe Lee’s Piano Concerto (2007), and Hans Peter Türk’s Träume (2012).

Robert Levin has long performed and recorded with violist Kim Kashkashian. He appears frequently with his wife, pianist Ya-Fei Chuang, in duo recitals and with orchestra, and with cellist Steven Isserlis. A noted Mozart scholar, Mr. Levin’s completions of Mozart’s Requiem and other unfinished works have been recorded and performed throughout the world. In 2005 his completion of the Mozart C-minor Mass, commissioned by Carnegie Hall, was premiered there and has since been widely heard in the United States and Europe. He has been an artist teacher at the Sarasota Music Festival since 1979 and was its Artistic Director from 2007-2016. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and member of the Akademie für Mozartforschung, he is President of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition (Leipzig, Germany). He was awarded the Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig in 2018 and the Mozart Gold Medal by the International Mozarteum Foundation in 2024. From 1993 to 2013 he was Dwight P. Robinson, Jr. Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University and is presently Visiting Professor at The Juilliard School and international chair at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London.

Hélène MERCIER

Hélène Mercier is the daughter of François Mercier, a lawyer, and Lucile Mercier (née Rouleau), a real estate agent. She began her musical studies at the age of six at the Vincent-d’Indy School of Music in Outremont, Canada. At the age of 15, she entered the Vienna Academy of Music. She then studied at the Juilliard School with Sasha Gorodnitski. She continued her studies with Pierre Sancan of the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris.

She has been invited to play with several European and North American orchestras including the Prague Philharmonia, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. In Paris, she has played under the direction of Zubin Mehta with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and under the direction of Kurt Masur at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. She has also performed with the Russian National Orchestra and the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Spivakovand in Canada with the orchestras of Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal under the direction of Charles Dutoit, Trevor Pinnock and Long Yu. In China, she has performed in Shanghai with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra. With the Orchestre de Paris, under the direction of Semyon Bychkov, she performed Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with cellist Natalia Gutman and Salvatore Accardo. She recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardnerand with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi and Sir Andrew Davis. She played with violinist Vladimir Spivakov in Paris, St. Petersburg, Montreal, at the Colmar Festival and the Rencontres Musicales d’Evian. She performed in recital with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich in Copenhagen and Paris.

In Japan, she performed with the New Japan Philharmonic under the direction of Seiji Ozawa.

She has also performed with violinists Renaud Capuçon, Ivry Gitlis, Laurent Korcia and cellists Gautier Capuçon, Henri Demarquette and Truls Mork. She has played two pianos with Boris Berezovsky, Frank Braley, Brigitte Engerer, Cyprien Katsaris and Louis Lortie.

In April 2024, Mercier appeared in a video that went viral, published by the French-Malian singer Aya Nakamura, alongside Brigitte Macron.

In partnership with Canadian pianist Louis Lortie, she released several recordings for Chandos Records, which earned the Diapason d’Or.

With the violinist Vladimir Spivakov, she recorded a disc dedicated to Ernest Chausson, under the Capriccio label. This recording received the “Choc” label from Le Monde de la Musique.

With Cyprien Katsaris, she recorded a disc of works by Schumann and Brahms as well as an album under the Warner Classics label with Brahms’ Hungarian Dances and Waltzes.

Ronan O’HORA

Ronan O’Hora has performed throughout the world, playing with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic and English Chamber orchestras, the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Hallé Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Zurich Tonhalle, Netherlands Radio Chamber, Philharmonia Hungarica, Brno Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony, Florida Philharmonic and Queensland Philharmonic. He has performed regularly in every major country in Europe as well as in the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore and South Africa working with leading conductors such as Kees Bakels, Matthias Bamert, Hans Vonk, James Judd, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Bramwell Tovey, Hans Vonk, Edo de Waart, Takuo Yuasa and Lothar Zagrosek as well as appearing at many notable music festivals like Salzburg, Gstaad, Ravinia, Montpelier, Bath, Harrogate and Brno. He has broadcast on television and radio throughout the world. Ronan O’Hora has made highly regarded recordings on the Tring International, EMI, Hyperion, Virgin Classics, Dinemic and Fone labels in which he has covered concertos by Mozart, Grieg and Tchaikovsky in addition to solo piano repertoire by Schubert, Brahms, Debussy, Schumann, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Mendelssohn and Satie plus chamber music by Fauré, Britten, Debussy, Dvorak and Mozart in a discography which extends to over thirty CDs. Reviewed as its Editor’s Choice, The Gramophone Magazine wrote ” The Grieg Piano Concerto [with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under James Judd] demands imagination and great delicacy of feeling as well as bravura without barnstorming if its eternal freshness is to be caught on record. Ronan O’Hora …… uncannily invests this very beautiful recording with all these virtues, and more besides, for the performance sounds totally spontaneous even on second or third hearings … The cadenza is superb …”

Ronan O’Hora is the Head of Keyboard Studies and Head of Advanced Performance Studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and is a teacher of world renown. Many of his students have been prize winners in international piano competitions. He regularly gives masterclasses all over the world including at the Juilliard School, Yale University, Peabody Institute, Beijing Central Conservatory, Seoul National University, Korean National University of the Arts, Glenn Gould School, Banff Centre and the Orford Music Academy. Ronan O’Hora is Visiting Professor at Tokyo College of Music and Guest Professor at the China Conservatory. He regularly sits on the jury of the world’s foremost international piano competitions, including the Rubinstein, Hamamatsu, Gina Bachauer, Dublin and China International Competitions.

Antti SIIRALA

The Finnish pianist Antti Siirala has established himself as one of the finest pianists of his generation. His rich palette of sound colours, his differentiated and songful phrasing and expressive intelligence are praised frequently. Antti Siirala is the winner of numerous international competitions, including the Leeds International Piano Competition. In 1997 he won the International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna as the youngest laureate in its history. This resulted in the performance of all Beethoven piano works at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in the following years and a focus on Beethoven in Siirala’s repertoire.

He performs with renowned conductors like Herbert Blomstedt, François-Xavier Roth, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Sakari Oramo, and with orchestras like the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, the Radio Symphony Orchestras of HR, NDR, SWR and WDR, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Wiener Symphoniker, City of Birmingham Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Residentie Orkest, Gothenburg Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo.

He regularly performs chamber music with partners like Carolin Widmann, Baiba Skride, Lawrence Power, Tanja Tetzlaff, Jan Vogler and Sharon Kam.

Milestones in his career were recitals in the piano series of the Berlin Philharmonic, at the Lucerne Festival and at the Ruhr Piano Festival, at concert halls like Cologne’s Philharmonie, London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, at the Metropolitan Museum in New York or Zurich’s Tonhalle. Furthermore, Antti Siirala was artist in residence for three years at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, featured in its series Junge Wilde.

Recent highlights were his debut with the Belgrade Philharmonic with the Grieg piano concerto and the German premiere of Thomas Adès Three Berceuses with Lawrence Power at the Moritzburg Festival. The upcoming seasons will see Antti return to the Prague Symphony Orchestra under Pietari Inkinen, to the Nordic Chamber Orchestra and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra under Eva Ollikainen. He will also make his debut with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken.

CD recordings, for which he received the Editor’s Choice Award of Gramophone Magazine several times, were published by Sony (Schubert’s Trout Quintet with newly composed variations) and Naxos (works by Brahms and Schubert transcriptions). Other recordings include the last three Beethoven sonatas (AVI-Music) and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (SONY, with The Knights, Colin Jacobsen and Jan Vogler).

Jasminka STANČUL

Originally from Serbia, Austrian pianist Jasminka Stančul started her musical education in her homeland and later went on to study at the Wiener Musikhochschule with Professor Noel Flores and with Maria Tipo at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève.

Her musical talent and exceptional approach to Beethoven’s music brought her victory at the International Beethoven Competition in Vienna in 1989.

Jasminka Stančul’s solo activities have led her to perform with major orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, Nuremberg Philharmonic Orchestra, Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra, Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Prague and Slovak Philharmonic Orchestras, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Haydn Orchestra Bolzano, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Madison and Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra and many others.

She has performed with renowned conductors such as Daniele Gatti, Fabio Luisi, Nikolaj Alexeev, Semyon Bychkov, Asher Fisch, Ádám Fischer, Hans Graf, Lorin Maazel, Ari Rasilainen, Essa Pekka Salonen, Kurt Sanderling, Horst Stein, Jukka Pekka Saraste, Bruno Weil, Tomas Netopil, Stéphane Denève, Kasushi Ono, Betrand de Billy, Gustav Kuhn, Lahav Shani, Johannes Wildner, Gabriel Feltz, James Judd, Enrique Mazzola, Marc Piollet, Antoni Wit and others.

Regarding Chamber Music Jasminka Stancul has earmarked the performances with the Vienna String Quartet, the Vienna Brahms Trio, and is to be heard regularly with Christian Altenburger, Franz Bartolomey, Patrick Demenga, Julian Rachlin, Benjamin Schmid, Nikolaj Znaider and many others.

Jasminka Stančul started her pedagogic career as a professor at the Ljubljana Music University in 2013 andwas awarded a full professorship at The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW) in October 2019.