Alpha Omega

THE MEMBERS OF THE JURY

  • Chairman: Vladimir ASHKENAZY
  • Deputy Chairman: LI Ming-qiang*


Members (in alphabetical order):

  • Peter FRANKL
  • Gary GRAFFMAN
  • Thorunn JOHANNSDOTTIR - ASHKENAZY
  • Vladimir KRAINEV
  • Ka-tak Gabriel KWOK*
  • Cristina ORTIZ
  • Pascal ROGE
  • Jeremy SIEPMANN
  • Ye-lun Eleanor WONG*

* Preselection Committee in charge of processing all applications

The Chairman and The Executive Secretary of The Chopin Society of Hong Kong Ltd. will attend all sessions of the Jury as observers and non-voting members.

ABOUT THE MEMBERS OF THE JURY


PhotoVladimir ASHKENAZY

Chairman of the Jury

One of the leading musicians of the world, with a career which has encompassed a wide variety of musical performances and forms of expression, maestro Ashkenazy is uniquely qualified to chair a group of his peers in judging this competition. He himself, in the early stages of his career, won the first prizes at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in 1956 and at the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1962.

For over three decades after these successes, he has performed widely both as a soloist and in concertos, and in chamber groups with artists, among others, of the stature of Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman, Lynn Harrel and Barbara Boney.

From the 1970s onwards, Vladimir became increasingly active in conducting. He has made guest appearances with major orchestras with, among others, the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw. He has also held several conducting positions including with the Philharmonia and the Cleveland Orchestras, and the Royal Philharmonic. From 1998 to 2003 he was the chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with which he toured and recorded widely. He is at present the music director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra, conductor laureate of the Philharmonia and of the Iceland Symphony Orchestras and music director of the European Union Youth Orchestra. Recently he assumed the post of chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

His discography is enormous and covers, among others, the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven, the complete piano works of Chopin, the solo piano works of Schumann the complete Mozart piano concertos and the complete Beethoven violin and piano sonatas- to mention but a few. His most recent CDs cover piano works by, among others, Shostakovich and Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier

Members of the jury (in alphabetical order)

Peter FRANKL

PhotoPeter Frankl studied at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest with Professors Hernádi, Kodály and Weiner and won first prizes at several international competitions. He is now in the faculty of Yale University School of Music and is an Honorary Professor of the Liszt Academy.

Following his London debut in 1962 and his New York debut with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1967, he has been performing with many orchestras in the USA (Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh etc), the Berlin Philharmonic, Gewandhaus, Concertgebouw, Orchestre de Paris, Israel Philharmonic, all London orchestras and many others. He has appeared with conductors like Abbado, Ashkenazy, Barbirolli, Blomstedt, Boulez, Chailly, Davis, Doráti, Fischer, Haitink, Kempe, Maazel, Masur, Muti, Solti, Szell, among others.

His many tours have taken him often to Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, playing with orchestras, in recitals and also in chamber music concerts. He has appeared at London’s BBC Promenade Concerts and has been a regular participant at the Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, Verbier, Kuhmo and Casals as well as in US Festivals. For many years the Frankl-Pauk-Kirshbaum trio travelled the world. He has performed with string quartets such as the Amadeus, Bartók, Borodin, Fine Arts, Guarneri, Lindsay, Panocha, Takács, Tokyo and Vermeer. He gives regular master classes in locations and academies across the world.

Among his many recordings are the complete Schumann and Debussy piano works, both Brahms’ Concerti, Violin Sonatas, with Kyung Wha Chung , the Mozart Concerti, Violin Sonatas and 4-hand works with Tamas Vasary, Bartok solo works and violin pieces with Peter Csaba ,the Piano Quintets of Brahms, Schumann, Dvorak, Martinu and Dohnanyi.


Gary GRAFFMAN

PhotoThe president of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia until 2006, and successor to previous heads such as Josef Hofmann and Rudolf Serkin, he will be bringing to the jury of this competition more than just his own decades of rich artistic experience, but also the aura and prestige of this exceptional teaching institution. Gary himself won in 1949 the Leventritt Award and counts among his teachers no less than Vladimir Horowitz and Rudolf Serkin.

The artistic world’s attention was additionally focused on his career by the fact that in 1979 an injury to his right hand forced him to concentrate on the piano repertoire for the left hand alone. He had, however, already left a recording legacy before this injury which included, in addition to solo piano works, several acclaimed recordings of the classic piano concertos with orchestras such as the New York, Cleveland, Chicago and Boston and with conductors such as L.Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Eugene Ormandy and George Szell. In a way, the partial curtailment of his performing career, was a boon to the numerous students he could turn his attention to but also set an example in terms of fortitude and musical development.

Gary Graffman continues to perform and record piano works specifically composed for him including piano concertos by Ned Rorem, Daron Hagen, Richard Danielpour, Luis Prado, and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski. Gary together with Leon Fleisher premiered William Bolcom’s piano concerto for two left hands!


PhotoThorunn JOHANNSDOTTIR-ASHKENAZY

A child prodigy who started to play piano at a very early age indeed. After her initial musical education in Iceland, she studied at the Royal Academy of Music and begun a promising performing career which covered various concerts including under the baton of Sir John Barbirolli. She participated in the 1958 Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow and then returned for further studies at the Moscow Conservatory under Lev Oborin. Her meeting with and marriage to Vladimir Ashkenazy, plus five children, stopped her performing career from 1961 onwards. However since then she has accompanied her husband to virtually every single of his engagements across the world.

Thorunn brings to this competition her own expertise as a pianist and, most importantly, nearly half a century of superb, possibly unique, musical experience.


Vladimir KRAINEV

PhotoVladimir Krainev possesses that rare combination of the talent of a world-class pianist and that of a wonderfully communicative teacher, he himself having being taught at the Moscow Conservatory by the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus. His participation in the jury of this competition is particularly welcome as he brings to it a wealth of experience as a jury member, teacher and prizewinner himself having won the first prize in piano at the 1970 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Vladimir is now professor at the Music Hochschule in Hanover and a jury member of several competitions including the Leeds, Clara Haskil and Tchaikovsky. In addition to his teaching duties he concertises widely across the world playing with major orchestras and conductors. Alfred Schnittke dedicated his piano concerto to him.

His discography is extensive, with pride of place going to his several recordings of all five Prokofiev’s piano concertos, as well as Mozart’s piano concertos among others. He has recently recorded a series of CD concentrating on Chopin, including Chopin’s cello sonata together with the cellist A.Rudin.

In 1992 Professor Krainev established in Kharkov, his birthplace, an international competition for young pianists as well as a charitable foundation to help young pianists.



Gabriel KWOK

PhotoSince 1989 Gabriel has been the Head of Keyboard Studies at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts which he had joined in 1987. He completed his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London under Guy Johnson and, later on, studied with Luis Kentner. In 2003 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.

Since his return to Hong Kong in 1978, Gabriel has developed a dual career as a teacher and a performer. On stage he has worked with a large number of artists including Jean-Pierre Rampal, Aaron Rosand and Nathaniel Rosen.

His teaching activities naturally extend into serving as visiting faculty member to various institutions including the Shenzhen Arts School, and the TCU/Cliburn Piano Institute in Fort Worth. He has held master classes in various cities in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand as well as in the PRC, Taiwan, Singapore and S.Korea. He has also given classes at , among others, the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal School of Music, the Sydney and the Queensland Conservatories, the Eastman School of Music, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Texas Christian University and the Yale School of Music.

Gabriel is a seasoned member of juries of international piano competitions including the Rome International Piano Competition, the Vianna da Motta International Piano Competition and the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition.



LI Mingqiang

PhotoIn a dignified, but also painful way, Mingqiang’s career plots the development of piano performance in postwar China. Born in Shanghai, he received his first piano lessons by a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, Alfred Wittenberg, himself a student of the famous violinist J. Joachim. Later on he joined the Shanghai Conservatory studying under the Russian pianist T.P. Kravchenko and won the first prize at the Enescu International Piano Competition in Bucharest in 1958.

The Cultural Revolution put an abrupt end to his artistic development, as it did for most of his colleagues. During 1965-71 he was sent to work in the countryside and in factories, where the fingers of his right hand were seriously damaged. As the conditions for artistic expression in the PRC improved after 1977 he was able to tour internationally.

Since 1993 Mingqiang has lived in Hong Kong where he leads an active professional life, teaching, giving master classes, and participating as a member of jury in most major international piano competitions.

The Alpha Omega Music ( the recording and CD label of the Hong Kong Chopin Society Ltd.) has released under the patronage of CLP Holdings a double CD featuring a selection of Mingqiang's earlier recording of Chopin and Enescu and of a selection of Chinese piano compositions. The CD will be released soon for wider distribution



Cristina ORTIZ

PhotoHer Brazilian origins and cultural heritage have added a distinct color and passion in her performances of a wide repertoire and of her large discography. In addition to over twenty-five years of performing career, Cristina brings to this competition her own experience as the gold medalist of the 3rd Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

She has appeared with numerous orchestras, including the Berlin and the Vienna Philharmonics, the Philarmonia and Cleveland Orchestras, the Chicago Symphony and the Czech Philharmonic. She has also worked with conductors such as Kurt Masur, Andre Previn, Neeme Jarvi, Kyril Kondrasin and Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Cristina is a keen chamber musician and has performed with numerous partners who included Michael Collins, Lynn Harrell, Truls Mork and the Prague Wind Quintet.

Her discography is wide and eclectic covering works by Beethoven, Chopin, Clara Schuman, R.Schuman, collections of French impressionists' piano works and by Spanish composers as well as the solo piano works and the complete piano concertos of her compatriot H. Villa-Lobos. In recent years Christina has dedicated an increasing amount of time to the younger generation in teaching and giving masterclasses all over the world.



Pascal ROGE

PhotoPascal Roge has come to exemplify all that is best in French pianism today both in his continuous recital performances and his extensive discography of the genre.

He studied in the Paris Conservatory and also with Julius Katchen who had an important influence on his artistic development.Pascal is no stranger to competitions having himself won the first prize for piano at the age of twenty at the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition.

His regular concertising takes him virtually around the world, appearing regularly in Europe, the US, Latin America, and Australia with annual visits to Japan becoming focal point. Recent activities included appearances at the International Piano Series in London as a guest artists, and performances with the Ysaye Quartet, a part of his regular and enthusiastic chamber music performances.

Orchestras he has appeared with include the Philadelphia, the Montreal Symphony, Concertgebouw, Vienna Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, the NHK Symphony, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, l’Orchestre de Paris as well as all the major London orchestras. Pascal is the Artistic Director of Incontri in Terra di Siena summer festival which takes place each year in Tuscany

His discography is extensive including the complete piano works of Poulenc and of Ravel, four albums of Satie and a Bartok cycle with the London Symphony Orchestra. His recordings have won many prestigious awards including two Gramophone awards, a Grand Prix du Disque and an Edison award for his interpretations of the Ravel and Saint- Saens concertos. Currently he is recording a complete Debusssy cycle in the Onyx classics label



Jeremy SIEPMANN

PhotoThough long resident in England, Jeremy Siepmann was born and formally educated in the United States. On completing his studies at the Mannes College of Music in New York, he moved to London, at the suggestion of Sir Malcolm Sargent. After several years as a freelance lecturer he was invited to join the staff of London University. For most of the last twenty years he has confined his teaching activity to the piano. His pupils include pianists of worldwide repute and he has also given numerous master classes on both sides of the Atlantic. In January 2004 he was appointed Professor of Musical Aesthetics and the History of Piano Performance at the International Piano Academy - Lake Como in Italy.

As a writer he has contributed articles, reviews and interviews to numerous journals and reference works (including The Musical Times, Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine and The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians) some of them being reprinted in book form. His books include highly acclaimed biographies of Chopin and Brahms, two volumes on the history and literature of the piano, and biographies of Mozart and Beethoven, (2005) and of Tchaikovsky ( 2007). Since December 1997, he has been the editor of Piano magazine, whose regular contributors include many of the world's greatest pianists. In recent years his series for Naxos Records - 'Life and Works' and 'Classics Explained' - have received exceptional accolades from critics and listeners on both sides of the Atlantic

His career as a broadcaster began in New York in 1963 with an East Coast radio series on the life and work of Mozart. On the strength of this, improbably, he was hired by the BBC as a humorist, in which capacity he furnished weekly satirical items on various aspects of American life. After a long break he returned to broadcasting in 1977, and has devised, written and presented more than 1,000 programmes, including the international-award-winning series The Elements of Music. In 1988 he was appointed Head of Music at the BBC World Service, broadcasting to an estimated audience of 135 million. He left the Corporation in spring 1994 to form his own independent production company.



Eleanor WONG
Photo

Eleanor studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London under Frederic Jackson and Max Pirani, graduating with top honors and awards. As a Boise Scholar, she then continued her studies in Paris with Vlado Perlemuter, himself a student of Cortot, and later on with Arthur Balsam in New York. If we were to extent the linear connections with teachers of the past, we could mention that Cortot received instruction in the early part of his studies by Emile Decombes, himself a disciple of Chopin- an appropriate link between Eleanor and the Chopin Society of Hong Kong !

A consummate teacher herself, she is now Artist-in-Residence (keyboard) and Senior Lecturer at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Since 1997 she has been holding a visiting professorship at the Shenzhen School of Arts and the Wu Han music conservatory. Eleanor is also the chairperson of the Piano Teachers’ Association in Hong Kong.She has given master classes in the PRC, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Uruguay and the USA. Eleanor has wide experience in piano competitions having participated as a juror in competitions in Hong Kong, the PRC and Thailand. Several of her students have won prizes in international and local competitions, she herself being a silver medallist at the Viotti International Competition in Italy.

Her performing career has taken her to London (Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room), the US as well as Hong Kong. Since 1986, Eleanor has formed a piano duo with her sister and they have toured the PRC and US as well as performing in her home base in Hong Kong. Eleanor was named as the 2007 Leader of the Year in Culture and Arts by the Sing Tao newspapers in Hong Kong.

 


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