Piotr Paleczny

Poland

Chairman of the Jury

One of the most outstanding Polish pianists and professors, laureate of five international piano competitions.

He completed piano studies at the Frederick Chopin Music University in Warsaw in the class of prof. Jan Ekier. The opportunity of having artistic contact with Arthur

Rubinstein and Witold Lutoslawski also had a huge impact on the final development of his artistic personality.

His success achieved at the 8th Frederick Chopin International Piano Competition opened to Piotr Paleczny the doors of many prestigious world concert halls.

Receiving, in company of Garrick Ohlsson and Mitsuko Uchida – the Third Prize, the Special Prize for the best performance of a Polonaise and the Witold Małcużyński Prize his career, which the artist has enjoyed constantly until now performing concerts on all continents.

He performed as a soloist with such prominent orchestras as the Chicago Symphony,  Concertgebouw, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhaus, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, RAI, Santa Cecilia, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Argentina and Orquesta Nacional de España…. and many other famous orchestras.

He gave concerts in prestigious concert halls including the Carnegie Hall, the Alice Tully Hall and the UN General Assembly Hall in New York, the Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Berliner Philharmonie, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Royal Festival Hall in London and Festspielhaus in Salzburg.

He has held master classes in New York, Tokyo, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Fort Worth, Bordeaux, Paris, Seoul, Beijing, Brescia, Madrid, Amsterdam, Hamamatsu, Montevideo, Mexico City…

He has gained a great recognition as a juror at the prestigious international piano competitions such as those organized in Warsaw (eight last editions of the Chopin Competition), Leeds, Montreal, Moscow (Tchaikovsky – in 2002 and in June, 2019), Paris, A.Rubinstein in Tel Aviv, London, Cleveland, Geneve, Hamamatsu, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, Tokyo, Takamatsu, Seoul, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Santander, Sendai, Taipei, Weimar, Manchester, Shezhen, Los Angeles, Hilton Head…

In July 2007, he led the Jury works at the prestigious piano competition in Cleveland, thus he was the first and only Pole invited to fulfill a function of Jury chairman at the USA international piano competitions. On 5 November 2001, Paleczny was invited to be a soloist of the extraordinary Gala Concert to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra.

Since 1993 he has been Artistic Director of the world’s oldest existing piano festival – the Duszniki International Chopin Piano Festival and since 2004 he also is the Artistic Director of the International Paderewski Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz.

In 2015 the National F. Chopin Institute has released highly awaited CD recorded by Piotr Paleczny – all Chopin recital which became a huge success among critics and the audience.

Piotr Paleczny conducts the piano class at the Frederick Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. His students have won dozens of awards at the most important international and national piano competitions. Currently he is also Professor at the Talent Music Academy in Brescia, Italy. He is also member of the executive committee of the International Pianists Association.

The artist is honored with many superior and prestigious Polish and foreign states decorations, such as the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Mexican Order of the Aguila Azteca.

In September 2005, he was awarded the highest Polish artistic distinction – “Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis”. In March 2017, Paleczny was awarded with prestigious Diploma and Title of Honorary Professor of the F. Chopin University of Music.

In April 2017, the Board of the Polish Phonographic Academy, in recognition of his artistic achievements, awarded him with the most prestigious “Golden Fryderyk” Award.

In 2018, Paleczny received an extraordinary and unique prize – The C.K. Norwid Award “Work of Life”. In 2019 – the Government of Japan awarded Piotr Paleczny one of the highest Japanese honors – Order of the Rising Sun, Golden Rays with Ribbon.

On May 2022 the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw hosted a solemn ceremony to confer the title of Doctor Honoris Causa on Piotr Paleczny. The promoter of this act of the highest prestige will be Maestro Krystian Zimerman.

Akemi Alink

Japan/Holland

Akemi Alink was born in Japan. She won prizes in national and international piano competitions and performed in important halls, such as Suntory Hall, Tokyo Opera City recital hall and Munetsugu hall.
She is also active in Chamber Music and Lieder Accompaniment. Since 2012, she forms a duo with German Mezzo-Soprano Stephanie Gericke. They are giving Lieder recitals in Europe. They also made tour in Japan and gave recitals in 2014, 2016 and 2019.
Apart from her performances, Akemi also teaches and gave masterclasses in Europe, Japan and the USA.
As a writer, she contributes articles for books and magazines in Japan and Europe (in Japanese and in English). Since 2013, she has been writing a series of articles “Competition reports from across the world” for the monthly piano magazine “Chopin” in Japan, in total more than 100 times.

Akemi also made large reports and interviews about the major International piano competitions in the world, such as the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan (2015, 2018), the Sydney Competition in Australia (2016), the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Israel (2017) and the Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition in Poland (2015, 2021).
She served as a jury member at the Concurso Internacional de Piano “Premio Jaén” (Spain), Concorso Pianistico Internazionale “Rina Sala Gallo” (Italy), Santa Cecilia International Competition  (Portugal), Concours International Grand Prix Animato (France), Stasys Vainiunas International Chamber Ensemble Competition (Lithuania), Cincinnati World Piano Competition (USA), Olga Kern International Piano Competition (USA), Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition (USA), BNDES International Piano Competition in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and more.
Akemi Alink is a Board member of the Alink-Argerich Foundation. She attended more than 100 competitions over the past 20 years. She frequently gives advice to young pianists and competition organizers.

Álvaro Teixeira Lopes

Portugal

Porto-born pianist Álvaro Teixeira Lopes completed in 1981 his studies at the Porto Music Conservatoire with top marks. He studied under Isabel Rocha and Helena Sá e Costa, and in 1979/1980 he studied with Jorge Moyano at the National Conservatoire in Lisbon. Thanks to scholarships from the Austrian government, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the State Department of Culture, he went on to study in Vienna with Paul Badura Skoda and Noel Flores and in Paris with Marian Rybicki.

A multiple prizewinner, Lopes has a busy national and international career as a solo and chamber music performer, often being invited to play at the most prestigious festivals in Portugal, as well as in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Malta, Spain and the UK.

He is a member of Solistas do Porto and the Khora Ensemble, and often performs with the Suggia String Quartet and accompanies the cellist José Pereira de Sousa, his nephew Francisco Berény, and plays four-handed with the pianist Fausto Neves.

Álvaro Teixeira Lopes recorded two CDs with José Pereira de Sousa for the Numérica label, one of which is totally devoted to Portuguese music from the twentieth century. He also recorded a CD of music by Astor Piazzolla with the Khora Ensemble. In 2006, he brought out a solo CD of works by Amílcar Vasques Dias: Doze Nocturnos em Teu Nome and Lume De Chão – tecido de memórias e afectos.

He has debuted pieces by Cláudio Carneyro, Frederico de Freitas, Fernando Corrêa de Oliveira, Fernando Lapa, Cândido Lima, Amílcar Vasques Dias, António Chagas Rosa and Evguene Zouldikine, some of which dedicated to him.

He produced Visions de L’Amen, by Olivier Messiaen, with the pianist Miguel Borges Coelho, and the Piano Concerto by Nino Rota with the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra.

He has taught numerous courses in performance and piano teaching in Portugal, Brazil and Italy.

He receives frequent invitations to sit on the juries of piano competitions, including the 11th, 15th and 20th Porto International Piano Competition. He represented Portugal at the 21st Valentino Bucchi Piano Competition in Rome. In Portugal, he was a jury member at: the Florinda Santos Piano Competition, the International Competition of the City of Fundão, the Iberian Piano Competition Alto Minho, the Luís Costa International Piano Competition, the Porto Music Conservatoire Competition, the Santa Cecilia Competition and the Marília Rocha Competition.

He is a Guest Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication and Art of the University of Aveiro, where he teaches piano and chamber music. His commitment to teaching is reflected in the large number of his former students who now teach at music schools and Conservatoires throughout the country and who have won awards at national and international competitions.

He is artistic director of the Santa Cecilia International Competition and a Board Member of the Silva Monteiro Music School. He often collaborates with writers and actors in cross-disciplinary projects such as “Projeto COiNCIDÊNCIA”, with the actor Pedro Lamares.

Eduardo Monteiro

Brazil

One of Brazil’s most prolific pianists, Rio-born Eduardo Monteiro has earned critics acclaim as one of the leading exponents in the national piano scene.

He has shared his musical talent with demanding audiences at some of the most important venues in Brazil and abroad, including the Wigmore Hall in London, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, the Philharmonie in Cologne, Gasteig in Munich, Sala Verdi in Milan, Liceo in Barcelona, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Houston University Opera House, Jordan Hall in Boston, Sala São Paulo, Sala Cecília Meireles in Rio de Janeiro, Sala Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, and the São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro Municipal Theatres.

He has performed with Brazil’s foremost orchestras and renowned orchestras abroad, including the St. Petersburg, the Moscow, the Munich, and the Bremen Philharmonics, the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra. He has played under the baton of Brazil’s most acclaimed conductors, as well as outstanding foreign conductors as Yuri Temirkanov, Mariss Jansons, Dmitri Kitayenko, Philippe Entremont, Arnold Katz, Sergiu Comissiona, Emil Tabakov, Kirk Trevor, and Asher Fisch.

He is often in demand to coach and perform at important festivals, such as Campos do Jordão, Texas Music Festival and Folle Journée do Rio de Janeiro, performing the opening concert at the latter two events.

He was the creator and director of the Piano Solo series at Rio de Janeiro’s Sala Cecília Meireles and Sala Promon in São Paulo, where budding talents, who opened each concert, would make contact with leading lights of the piano world like Nelson Freire, Cristina Ortiz and Diano Kacso, and Eduardo himself.

His recording career includes the remarkable Piano Music of Brazil CD on the British label Meridian Records, launched with a recital at London’s Wigmore Hall with praising reviews from top specialised publications worldwide.

Eduardo Monteiro has won major piano competitions in Brazil and abroad, including first place (by unanimous vote) at the 3rd Cologne International Piano Competition, in Germany in 1989, as well as prizes at the Dublin (1991) and Santander (1992) competitions. He twice won the Carlos Gomes Music Award, in Brazil (2004 and 2005).

Monteiro earned his Bachelor and Master degrees from the Music Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and his doctorate from Sorbonne in Paris. He also studied in Italy at the International Piano Academy Lake Como, and in 2002 he received an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory, in Boston, USA, in the class of Wha-Kyung Byun.

Monteiro currently holds a Full Professorship at the Music Department of the Communications and Arts School of the University of São Paulo, where he devotes his energies to developing the talent of young pianists. Students of his have won a variety of awards in Brazil and abroad, notably first prize at the 25th Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland.

From 2008 to 2010 Eduardo Monteiro sat on the Consultive Forum for Music of the São Paulo State Board of Culture. He has served as Director of the São Paulo University Symphony Orchestra, Vice-president of the Academic Activities Committee and the Permanent Evaluation Committee of the University of São Paulo, Director and currently Vice-director of the School of Communications and Arts at São Paulo University and Culture Director of the Maria Luisa and Oscar Americano Foundation.

Linda Bustani

Brazil

A leading South American pianist with an international career, Linda Bustani studied under Arnaldo Estrella in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Winner of the Vianna da Mota International Competition in Lisbon at just age 15 – and previously a winner at the national competitions of Salvador and Rio de Janeiro – Linda Bustani was invited by Iakov Zak to work under his guidance at the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in Moscow, where she also studied with Elisso Virsaladze.

Prizes ensued at the International Competitions of Bratislava and Rio de Janeiro, and Linda Bustani’s international career effectively took off after she took part in the Leeds International Piano Festival, in the UK Following came engagements to perform concerts and recitals in Portugal, the Netherlands (Concertgebouw in Amsterdam), Belgium, the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia), Russia, Ukraine and Georgia (then the USSR), Scotland, United Kingdom, Japan, Hungary, USA and Latin America. She has played with the New Philharmonia, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Welsh, BBC Scottish, Hallé, Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Petrobras Pró Música and the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra (OSESP). The conductors she has played with include Simon Rattle, Charles Groves, William Tausky, Anatoli Fistoulari, Louis Frémaux, Okko Kamu, Gunther Herbig, John Neschling, Isaac Karabitchevsky, Eleazar de Carvalho, Roberto Duarte, Henrique Morelenbaum, Alceo Bocchino, Roberto Tibiriçá and Ligia Amadio. In 2003, Linda Bustani won the Carlos Gomes Prize (Brazil) as “the best pianist of the year” award.

Marian Rybicki

France

Marian Rybicki, pianist, brings together two pianistic schools – those of Poland (Music Academy of Krakow) and France (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris). Following a career of concertizing mainly in eastern countries, he began his tenure as professor at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris / Alfred Cortot in 1979.

Many of his students have been recognized at major international competitions, including FIRST prizewinners at Santander (1978), Marguerite Long – Jacques Thibaud (2004), Leeds (2009), Hamamatsu (2012), Tel Aviv – Arthur Rubinstein (2014) and Paris – Prix Cortot (2016 and 2020).

He has also served on juries for international competitions such as Beijing, Moscow (Chopin and Scriabin), Shanghai, Tokyo, Kiev (Horowitz), Monte Carlo, Tbilisi, Porto and Jaén, Rio de Janeiro, among others.

Marian Rybicki develops an important support for young artists at the beginning of their career. In 1992 he founded the Animato Association in Paris, organizing numerous concerts for them in France and abroad. Since that date more than 800 young pianists invited by this prestigious association have played recitals in the Salle Cortot in Paris, and many of them have won top prizes from world greatest international competitions.

In December 2021 Marian Rybicki created the first in France International Frederic Chopin Competition.

In recognition of his musical contributions, he has been awarded the Gold Cross of Merit.

Pierre Réach

France

Over the years, Pierre Réach has earned a reputation as an exceptional pianist with a spectacular repertoire, including Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Liszt’s Transcription of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, the Hammerklavier Sonata, and the “Les Quatre Âges de la Vie” sonata by Charles-Valentin Alkan. He is also a renowned teacher who enthusiastically conveys the quest for emotion through music. For the last twenty years he has been a tireless creator and organizer of artistic projects.

He first draw public attention when he earned first prize in the Olivier Messiaen Competition. This title was followed by prizes at the Pozzoli competition in Italy, the Maria Canals and Jaén competitions in Spain, and a medal at the Arthur Rubinstein competition in Israel.

After studying with Yvonne Lefébure and Yvonne Loriod at the Paris Conservatoire, Pierre Réach received further artistic enhancement with Maria Curcio in London, from 1975 to 1982. For several years, he also received regular mentoring from legendary teachers as Arthur Rubinstein, Alexis Weissenberg and Paul Badura-Skoda. In his broad repertoire, ranging from Bach to Messiaen, through Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Chopin, the works of Beethoven have always held a relevant place. Having mastered all 32 of Beethoven’s sonatas, which he has always performed with great passion, is something Réach sees as a key achievement of a life built with great tenacity, hard work and an unmeasured commitment to excellence.

Pierre Réach has performed recitals and concerts throughout Europe, Japan, the USA, Israel, Russia, China (which he usually visits four times a year) and South Korea. He has performed with the Radio France Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo), the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, the KBS Symphony Orchestra (Seoul), the Hallé (Manchester), the Richmond Symphony Orchestra (Virginia), Pomeriggi Musicali (Milan), the Symphony Orchestra of the Balearic Islands, Barcelona Municipal Band, etc. He has several recordings of works by Charles-Valentin Alkan, Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Olivier Messiaen, Jean Cras, Stravinsky, Mendelssohn, Mussorgsky, etc.

Pierre Réach is nowadays regarded as one of the leading interpreters of the Goldberg Variations by Bach. In January 2005, he was named Professor Honoris Causa of the Shanghai Conservatoire, and holds much sought-after masterclasses across Europe, the Americas and Asia. He currently teaches piano and chamber music at the Catalunya Superior School of Music (ESMUC).

His concert, broadcast on TF1, given on the rooftop terrace of the 2,800 meter high Pic du Midi Observatory in France, when he played a grand piano conveyed there by helicopter, will always be remembered. This concert gave rise to the Festival Piano aux Pyrénées in Bagnères de Bigorre (Hautes-Pyrénées), soon renamed Festival Piano-Pic (www.piano-pic.fr). Pierre was also behind the creation of the Printemps Musical de Provins et Piano, inCastelnaudary, and the Vila-seca Music Festival (Spain). He has been a Steinway artist since 1982. In March 2015, Pierre Réach received the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres medal from the French Ministry of Culture.

Roberto Tibiriçá

Brazil

São Paulo-born musician Roberto Tibiriçá developed his art under the tutorship of Guiomar Novaes, Magda Tagliaferro, Dinorah de Carvalho, Nelson Freire and Gilberto Tinetti. He studied under Eleazar de Carvalho, with whom he had the opportunity to work for 18 years after winning the OSESP Young Conductors Competition two years in a row.

He held the position of assistant conductor at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (Lisbon) and in 1994 he was appointed Artistic Director and Master Conductor of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. Between 2000 and 2004 he was Artistic Director and Master Conductor of the Petrobras Symphony Orchestra, and between 2005 and 2011 he was Artistic Director of the Heliópolis Symphony Orchestra of Instituto Baccarelli (São Paulo). In 2010 he took over as Master Conductor of the Minas Gerais Symphony Orchestra, up to 2013. He also served as Master Conductor and Artistic Director of the Campinas Symphony Orchestra and the São Bernardo do Campo Philharmonic, both in São Paulo, and the SODRE Symphony Orchestra in Montevideo (Uruguay).

He was elected “Musician of the Year 1995 -f Rio de Janeiro” by the specialized critics, and was awarded the Estácio de Sá Prize by the Rio de Janeiro State Government for his work with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. He took part twice (2001 and 2004) in the Martha Argerich Festival, in Buenos Aires, at the artist’s invitation. For some years now he is being invited to conduct concerts with the Simón Bolivar Orchestra at the Villa-Lobos Festival in Venezuela.

In 2010 and 2011, he won the XIII and XIV Carlos Gomes Prize for Best Symphonic Conductor, for his work with the Minas Gerais and the Heliópolis symphony orchestras. In 2011 he was awarded the Order of Ipiranga (the highest honorary title granted by the State of São Paulo), the President Juscelino Kubitschek Grand Medal (from the Minas Gerais State Government), and the APCA Award (from the São Paulo Association of Art Critics) as Best Conductor (for his work with the Heliópolis Symphony Orchestra and the Minas Gerais Symphony Orchestra). He occupies seat no. 5 at the Brazilian Academy of Music and since May 11, 2003 he has been an Honorary Member of the National Academy of Music, in Rio de Janeiro. In 2020, at the height of the Covid pandemic, he debuted “Cartas Portuguesas”, a one-act opera by the Brazilian composer João Guilherme Ripper, and recorded the “Choros for Clarinet, Piano, Viola and Cello” and the piece “Flor de Tremembé”, by Camargo Guarnieri, for NAXOS lable.