Jury for the competition

Born in southern Germany and raised in Zurich, the soprano first took lessons with Paul Steiner, later with Ruth Rohner at the Zurich Opera House, and then completed her studies with Brigitte Fassbaender and Daphne Evangelatos in Munich. Since the winter semester 2020/2021, she has been teaching as a professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She also gives master classes in Austria and abroad and participates as a jury member in international competitions.

The artist worked with numerous renowned conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Kent Nagano, Riccardo Chailly, Bernard Haitink, Franz Welser-Möst, Claudio Abbado and Manfred Honeck. Lieder recitals have always been her passion and have taken her to the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Wigmore Hall in London, Konzerthaus Vienna, Kölner Philharmonie, Berlin's Boulez Hall and Madrid, among others.

Find out more at www.julianebanse.com

Leader of The Chamber Orchestra of Europe and founder member of the project “Spira mirabilis” the florentinian violinist Lorenza Borrani performs as director, soloist and chamber musician in the most important halls and concert seasons in Europe and in the world in collaboration with ensembles like Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Freiburger Barockorchester, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de Paris, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and many others. She is artistic partner director of Västerås Sinfonietta and Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra. As soloist she has played with conductors like C. Abbado, T. Pinnock, Y. N. Seguin, B.Haitink.

She is very passionate in chamber music projects with her closest musical partners. The recording of the full cycle of Mozart strings quintets with her ensemble “Spunicunifait” is about to be released by Alpha. She teaches in Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and is Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Feng Ning is recognized internationally as an artist of great lyricism, innate musicality and stunning virtuosity. Ning has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Minnesota Orchestra in the US and in Europe. He also performs regularly with the very top European orchestras, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic and Bournemouth Symphony.

In China, Ning is held in the highest regard, appearing with all the major Chinese orchestras, in recital and regularly with visiting international orchestras such as the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer. In 2023 and 2024 he is Artist-in-Residence at the NCPA Beijing where he performs Mozart’s five Violin Concerti as well as the complete solo Sonatas and Partitas of Bach.

Born in Chengdu, China, Feng Ning studied at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music with Weimin Hu, the Hanns Eisler School of Music (Berlin) with Antje Weithaas and the Royal Academy of Music (London) with Hu Kun. Ning lives in Berlin and is a Violin Professor at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule and also holds the position of International Chair of Violin at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Find out more at https://www.ning-feng.com

Dutch violinist Liza Ferschtman is known for her passionate performances, interesting programs and communicative qualities on stage. The daughter of Russian musicians, Liza Ferschtman grew up constantly surrounded by music. One of her earliest major influences was the violinist Philipp Hirschhorn, a close family friend.

She received her formal training from Herman Krebbers at the Amsterdam Conservatory, Ida Kavafian at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and David Takeno in London. In 2006 she received the highest accolade awarded to a musician in the Netherlands, the Dutch Music Award.

Find out more at https://lizaferschtman.nl

Kim Kashkashian’s work as performing and recording artist and pedagogue has been recognized worldwide. She won the coveted Grammy Award for her recording of Ligeti and Kurtag solo viola works in 2013. In 2016, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2020, named an Honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music.

As soloist, Kashkashian has appeared with the orchestras of Berlin, London, Vienna, Milan, New York and Cleveland. Recital appearances include the great halls of Berlin, Munich, Tokyo, Athens, London, New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

She coaches chamber music and viola at New England Conservatory of Music and is founder and artistic director of Music for Food, a musician-led hunger relief initiative.

Find out more at https://www.kimkashkashian.com

András Keller has enjoyed a varied career as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber musician at the highest international level. His early studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest led to many collaborations with György Kurtág, whose works he has been premiering and performing worldwide since 1978. He has also enjoyed working intensively with Dénes Kovács, Ferenc Rados and, until his death, Sándor Végh.

András Keller founded the Keller String Quartet in 1987 and has since given master classes and concerts throughout the world. As both chamber musician and soloist, he has appeared in every European country, performing at many prestigious festivals such as Salzburg, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Aldeburgh, Schleswig-Holstein and the BBC Proms. Outside of Europe, András Keller has been invited to New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln  Center, Washington’s Library of Congress, and many cities in Japan, China, and Korea. During his career he has worked with world-renowned artists including Mstislav Rostropovich, Natalia Gutman, Boris Pergamenschikow, Tabea Zimmerman, Truls Mørk, Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, Evgeni Koroliov, Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Lubimov, Juliane Banse, Khatia Buniatishvili, Vadim Repin, Isabelle Faust and Steven Isserlis, Heinz Holliger.

The recipient of the Premio Franco Abbiati, Liszt Prize, and Bartók-Pásztory Prize, he was named an Artist of Merit of Hungary and was also nominated for the United Kingdom’s Royal Philharmonic Society Award. His recordings have been awarded the Caecilia Prix (BE), Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, Edison Award (NL), Grand Prix del’ Académie Charles Cros(FR), Victoire du Musique (FR), MIDEM Classical Award (FR), Gramophon Award (UK) and Record Academy Award (JP).

András Keller was the Artistic Director of the Arcus Temporum Festival in Pannonhalma between 2004–2010 and has been holding to this position again since 2016. In 2007, he was appointed as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of Concerto Budapest, formerly known as the Hungarian Symphony Orchestra. Under his leadership, Concerto Budapest has earned a reputation as one of the most respected Hungarian touring orchestras, annually presenting over sixty concerts in Budapest, in addition to concerts and festival appearances in China, France, Germany, Spain, Poland, Japan, Thailand, South-Korea, Russia and the United States. He recently created a concert film with Concerto Budapest, Gidon Kremer & Kremerata Baltica which won the Winged Golden Lion of the Venice TV Award and the Lovie Award as well.

For the last two decades, András Keller was teaching annually at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and has been a regular guest of Yale University’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove. Between 2012-2015, he served as the head of the Chamber Music Department at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Since 2016, he has been teaching at the violin faculty of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, which also appointed him as Béla Bartók International Chair in 2018. In 2021, András Keller was awarded a Kossuth Prize in recognition of his exceptionally valuable artistic career for Hungary, his world-renowned skills as a performing artist, equally dedicated to chamber music and contemporary music, as well as his successful activities as music director, lecturer and organiser of cultural events. In 2022 he received the Prima Primissima Prize in Music Art.

Find out more at https://www.andraskeller.com/

– Violinist, artistic director and founder of Kremerata Baltica –

Driven by his strikingly uncompromising artistic philosophy, Gidon Kremer has established a worldwide reputation as one of his generation’s most original and compelling artists. His repertoire encompasses standard classical scores and music by leading twentieth and twenty-first century composers. He has championed the works of Russian and Eastern European composers and performed many important new compositions, several of which have been dedicated to him. His name is closely associated with such composers as Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Luigi Nono, Edison Denisov, Aribert Reimann, Pēteris Vasks, John Adams, Victor Kissine, Michael Nyman, Philip Glass, Leonid Desyatnikov and Astor Piazzolla, whose works he performs in ways that respect tradition while being fully alive to their freshness and originality. It is fair to say that no other soloist of comparable international stature has done more to promote the cause of contemporary composers and new music for violin.

Gidon Kremer has recorded over 120 albums, many of which have received prestigious international awards in recognition of their exceptional interpretative insights. His long list of honours and awards include the Ernst von Siemens Musikpreis, the Bundesverdienstkreuz, Moscow’s Triumph Prize, the Unesco Prize and the Una Vita Nella Musica – Artur Rubinstein Prize. In 2016 Gidon Kremer has received a Praemium Imperiale prize that is widely considered to be the Nobel Prize of music.

In 1997 Gidon Kremer founded the chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica to foster outstanding young musicians from the Baltic States. The ensemble tours extensively and has recorded almost 30 albums for the Nonesuch, Deutsche Grammophon, ECM labels. In 2016/17 Kremerata Baltica was on landmark tours through Middle East, North America, Europe, and Asia to celebrate the orchestra’s 20th anniversary.

His commitment to the “discovery” of the composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, for which Kremer has rendered particularly outstanding services in recent years, should also be emphasized. In 2019 and 2021, Deutsche Grammophon and Accentus Music released albums recorded by and with Gidon Kremer with orchestral and chamber music works by Weinberg.

Find out more at https://www.gidonkremer.net/

Alexander Lonquich, born in Trier, is one of the most important performers of his generation as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor. He performs regularly in the most important European music centers and is a guest at international festivals such as the Salzburger Festspiele, Mozartwoche Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Kissinger Sommer, Dresden Musikfestspiele, Ludwigsburg Schloßfestspiele, Lucerne Festival, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Lockenhaus, Cheltenham Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Beethoven Festival in Bonn and Warsaw.

As a pianist and conductor, he has performed with orchestras such as the hr Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Kammerorchester Basel, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai in Turin, Orchestra da Camera di Mantova, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a soloist, Lonquich has performed with the Vienna Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro alla Scala in Milan, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, under conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Yuri Bashmet, Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, Emmanuel Krivine, Mark Minkowski, Kurt Sanderling, Sándor Végh. As an enthusiastic chamber musician, he is a partner of Nicolas Altstaedt, Vilde Frang, Heinz Holliger, Christian Tetzlaff, Carolin Widmann, Jörg Widmann, the Auryn Quartet, Artemis Quartet and Quarteto Casals.

In 2002, Alexander Lonquich founded a piano duo with his wife Cristina Barbuti, which has performed in Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Norway and the USA. Alexander Lonquich's solo recordings for EMI (Mozart, Schumann and Schubert) have been highly acclaimed by the press and have been awarded major prizes such as the “Diapason d'Or” and the “Edison Prize”. Recent highlights include tours in Europe as soloist/conductor with the Camerata Salzburg, the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and performances of Beethoven's 5 piano concertos with the Munich Chamber Orchestra. In December 2024, Alexander Lonquich will play a recital in the piano cycle of the Berliner Philharmoniker. In addition to his concerts, Alexander Lonquich is Artistic Director of the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole.

Kathrin Rabus studied with Pjotr Bondarenko in Tel Aviv and Dorothy DeLay in New York. She took masterclasses with Nathan Milstein, Henryk Szeryng and Gidon Kremer and won the German Young Soloists Podium Award (1979) and the International Tibor Varga Violin Competition (1987).

1988-2022 she was First Concertmaster of the NDR Radiophilharmonie, as first woman in this position in a German radio symphony orchestra. At international festivals (Kuhmo, Lockenhaus, Jerusalem, Berlin) she is a welcome guest and was honoured with the prestigious ECHO Klassic Award in the chamber music category in 1999. She has made numerous CD recordings, a.o. as chamber music partner of Gidon Kremer. She plays as Primaria in the Kandinsky String Trio, in the Arte Ensemble and in András Schiff’s “Cappella Andrea Barca”.

Her teaching and lecturing activities have taken her to the University of Music and Drama Hannover, to the German national youth orchestra, the Japanese Chamber Music and Orchestra Academy Toyama, the Orchestra Academy of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Villa Musica Mainz.

Stephan Zilias is the General Music Director of the Staatsoper Hannover. He opened the 2023/24 season leading a critically acclaimed new production of “Parisfal” and later in the season conducts Reimann’s “Lear”. Zilias makes his Theater an der Wien debut with a production of Knussen’s “Where the Wild Things Are” and Savonlinna Festival (Finland) debut with a production of “Lohengrin”.


On the symphonic stage Stephan continues to curate a successful concert series in Hannover and this season makes his Netherland Radio Philharmonic debut. He will conduct NDR Radiophilharmonie for the 2024 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition. Zilias has a close relationship with Deutsche Oper Berlin and returns this season for “Fidelio”, having been invited as a guest conductor several times before.


Stephan studied piano and conducting in Cologne, Düsseldorf and London and later held positions at Mainz Opera, Theater Lüneburg and Bonn Opera. In 2018, Stephan was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.


Find out more at https://stephanzilias.com