Jury

Born in China, Zhe Tang entered the Shanghai Conservatory of Music at the age of twelve. Following graduation, he continued his studies in the United States and earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music, where he also taught and served as teaching assistant to Professor Barry Snyder. In 2003, Zhe Tang became one of the youngest piano professors in the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In addition to his teaching tenure, he was appointed as the Vice Dean of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the Director of Teaching and Research for the Piano Department, the Chair of the Piano Department for the Middle School Affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the Chair of Shanghai Professional Pianists Society，Artistic Director of Shanghai International Piano Festival & Institute, and Artistic Director of Shanghai Spring International Piano E-Competition.

Lionel Choi is the founder of Singapore-based Altenburg Arts, a new diversified arts consultancy firm with a focus on classical music. The ambitions of the company are built on Choi’s experience and the many music-related connections he established as Artistic Director of the Singapore International Piano Festival from 2010 to 2018. During his tenure, he had the opportunity to present and to form such meaningful friendships with many internationally celebrated artists, including Martha Argerich, Yuja Wang, Dang Thai Son, Seong Jin Cho, Nelson Freire, Stephen Kovacevich, Arnaldo Cohen, Stephen Hough, Yevgeny Sudbin, Benjamin Grosvenor, Piotr Anderszewski, Cédric Tiberghien, Kun-Woo Paik and Shai Wosner.

Born in Lviv, Ukraine in 1960, Sergei Edelmann represents a direct link to an outstanding piano tradition of Felix Blumenfeld and Heinrich Neuhaus. In his native country, Sergei\'s first orchestral performance was at the age of 10 playing Beethoven's First Piano Concerto. He subsequently performed extensively in recitals and with orchestras throughout ex-USSR. After immigrating to the United States in 1979 and immediately winning the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Edelmann has quickly established himself as a significant and highly acclaimed pianist of his generation, frequently being compared to the likes of Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubinstein, and has since become a leading artist both in the concert hall and in the recording studio.

Professor Hae-Young Kim is a graduate of Kyunggi Girl's High School (Korea), Seoul National University (Korea), Musik Hochschule fur Musik (Vienna, Austria), Musikwissenschaft and Musikalische Frueh-erziehung (Germany). She has performed in Korea, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, the US and Finland as a solo pianist, chamber music player and a soloist with national and international philharmonic orchestras. Every summer she presents lectures and master classes as well as serves on the jury of the piano competition in the Forum Barcelona Festival (Barcelona, Spain). Prof. Kim is a champion of contemporary music and has premiered numerous 20th century works including pieces of Jeno Takas, Jukka Linkola, and Edmon Tapio in Korea and other countries. Her most recent performances include "Apollo" by Jukka Linkolla at the Contemporary Music Festrival in Terrassa (Spain), Sonata for 2 pianos & percussion by Bartok, and a lecture recital of Piazzolla's "Le Grand Tango" for cello and piano.

Ewa Pobłocka was born in Chełmno. She began taking piano lessons at the age of five. She pursued her studies at Gdańsk Music Academy under Zbigniew Śliwiński and Jerzy Sulikowski, graduating with honours in 1981. Pobłocka completed post-graduate studies in Hamburg under Conrad Hansen (1982) and has benefitted from consultation with Jadwiga Sukiennicka, Rudolf Kerer, Tatiana Nikolaieva and Martha Argerich. She is a prize-winner of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (1980), where she received the prize for the best performance of Chopin mazurkas. She also won First Prize in the International Viotti Music Competition in Vercelli (1977), and the gold medal at the International Festival of Young Laureates in Bordeaux (1979).

Critically acclaimed as ‘...one of the greatest Interpreter of J.S. Bach´s work of his generation’, Pianist Stepan Simonian was born in 1981, studied at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under Pavel Nersessian and pursued his studies with the famous Pianist, Evgeni Koroliov, at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. It was through this linage of well cultured tradition of piano school, that shaped Simonian’s musical taste and passion for the works from Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven, Bach and Mozart.

Zhu Yafen was born in Shanghai and graduated from the Piano Department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. From 1953 to 1956, she toured as concert artist with the Chinese Artists’ Group to 12 European countries. After returning to China, she was appointed pianist to the Orchestra of Liaoning Opera Theatre and appeared in solo performances, chamber music appearances, as well as orchestra concerts. From 1978 to 1989, she served as Professor of Piano in the Shenyang Conservatory of Music and was Dean of the Piano Department from 1981 to 1986.