Takahiro SEKI (Japan) – President

http://www.mt-brillante.jp

Born in Tokyo, he graduated from the prestigious Tokyo State University of Art where he will also teach later. He went to Italy for specialization studying with G. Agosti and M. Tipo. He partecipated in several international competitions by winning the 3rd prize at the V. Bellini, Rachmaninov and Enna competitions, the 2nd prize at the Palma d’Oro Competition and 1st prize at the Zamboni Competition.
He is invited to several International Festivals including: Talentinum, Aterforum and Lingotto. He was invited as solist by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Orchestra and I solisti veneti.
For several years he has dedicated himself to the research and dissemination of italian piano music in Japan, almost completely unknown until then, publishing for the first time the critical revision of the scores and recording of many CDs. He published the book “Viva la Musica” on italian musical terminolgy which immediately became the best-seller and is currently at the 25th reprint.
In 2011 he gets the honors of Commendatore dell’Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana by the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano. Since 2005 he has been the President of the jury of the International Piano Competition “Palma d’Oro”.

Luca RASCA (Italy) – Artistic Director

http://www.lucarasca.com

Luca Rasca studied with Franco Scala at the Piano Academy in Imola (Italy) where he still lives.  He won numerous national and international competitions, including the London Piano Competition, Busoni of Bolzano, Palma d’Oro of Finale Ligure, Schubert of Dortmund, Scriabin of Grosseto, Chopin of Rome, City of Treviso, Casagrande of Terni, Viotti of Vercelli. He stages solo piano performances, with chamber music and has performed over 20 piano concerts with prestigious orchestras, including the RAI Symphony Orchestra, the Virtuosi of New York and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In the year 2000, he gave his debut concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall of London, playing the first concert of Brahms in the presence of HRH Charles, Prince of Wales. He has released numerous recordings,for Arts of London, Fluente Records, Piano Recital and Universal Music, and is frequently invited as a jury member at national and international piano competitions. In addition, he has been teaching for over 20 years and publishes regularly articles on the “Suonare News” music magazine. He is appointed the Artistic Director of the International Palma d’Oro Competition of Finale Ligure (SV) and director and teacher of Scuola Pianistica Ateneum of Finalborgo (SV). He is professor of piano at The Conservatory of Music Gioacchino Rossini in Pesaro (Italy). Since December 2015 he is a Steinway Artist. In September 2021 he signed an agreement with the Stradivarius record label for which two albums will soon be released: Kreisler works for violin and piano (in duo with Roberto Noferini) and the solo debut with George Gershwin Complete piano works.

Vovka ASHKENAZY  (Russia)

https://www.ashkenazypiano.com/

Vovka Ashkenazy, who is of Russian and Icelandic parentage, began piano lessons at the age of six with Rögnvaldur Sigurjónsson in Reykjavík, where his family lived at the time. Ten years later he went to England to study with Sulamita Aronovsky at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He also benefitted from occasional study sessions with pianists such as Leon Fleisher and Peter Frankl.

Vovka Ashkenazy made his debut in London at the Barbican Centre in 1983 with the London Symphony Orchestra under Richard Hickox, performing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. Since then, his career has taken him all across Europe, and to Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the Americas. He has participated in the Marlboro Festival in Vermont, as well as the Edinburgh and Spoleto festivals. Orchestras he has appeared with include nearly all the major British orchestras as well as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Australian Chamber, the Berlin Symphony, the Berne Symphony and the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestras. Conductors he has worked with include his father, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Semyon Bychkov, Martin Fischer-Dieskau and Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl, the Sydney Opera House, the Sala Verdi in Milan, and the Royal Festival Hall, London.

Vovka Ashkenazy is very active as a chamber musician and has recorded a CD of Italian Music for Clarinet and Piano with Dimitri Ashkenazy, his brother, with whom he toured Japan several times. He has also performed and recorded with his father, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and their recordings for DECCA include Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Rachmaninoff’s Suite for Piano Four Hands, and Schumann’s Andante and Variations for Two Pianos, Two Cellos and Horn.

Further recordings on DECCA with Vladimir Ashkenazy include the 2009 release of a CD with French music for two pianos, and a 2011 release of a two-piano CD entitled Russian Fantasy, which includes transcriptions by Vovka Ashkenazy of Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances, as well as Mussorgsky’s Night on the Bald Mountain. A further two-piano recording, with music by Howard Blake, came out in 2013. Their two-piano concert activities have recently included performances in Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK, as well as seven tours of the Far East, the most recent being Japan in April/May 2016. Vovka Ashkenazy has also worked together with the Reykjavík Wind Quintet and has released two CDs with this ensemble on the Chandos and the Cryston (Japan) labels.

Vovka Ashkenazy devotes most of his time to teaching. He has given master classes in many countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States. He was Professor of Piano at the Conservatoire Gabriel Fauré in Angoulême, France, from 1998 until 2007, when he moved to Switzerland. He was given a teaching position in 2012 at the International Academy of Imola, after giving masterclasses there, and he also teaches on the Master of Advanced Studies in Performance and Interpretation at the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland (CSI) in Lugano, at the Kalaidos Musikhochschule in Zürich, and at the Tiziano Rossetti Academy in Lugano.

Vovka Ashkenazy has contributed, through performances, to several charitable causes, including Action for Children and Cystic Fibrosis Trust in the UK, Telethon in Switzerland, and the Bridges Peace Foundation in Cambodia and the Philippines. He was made Honorary Artistic Adviser of the Guangzhou Opera House in November 2010,  and in 2014 he became Artistic Director of the Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition in Monza, Italy.

He currently resides in Ticino, Switzerland, with his family.

Piotr MACHNIK (Poland)

Piotr Machnik graduated from the Academy of Music in Krakow in 1999 in the class of prof. Stefan Wojtas (diploma with an excellent result), and then perfected his skills in Paris under the direction of Eugen Indijc. He also benefited from the artistic advice of Rudolf Buchbinder and Krystian Zimerman. He was a scholarship holder of the French government, the Mayor of Krakow and – twice – a scholarship holder of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Society. Fryderyk Chopin in Warsaw.
He is a laureate of numerous national and international piano competitions, e.g. monographic Chopin competitions in Marianske Lazne (1999; 2nd prize) and Ankara (1999; 2nd prize), but undoubtedly the breakthrough in his career was winning the Grand Prix and the Special Prize at the prestigious competition named after Maria Canals in Barcelona (2004). A year later, he took first place and received the Special Prize at the XXXII “Palma d’Oro” piano competition in Italy (Finale Ligure – 2005).
The artist is active in concerts, both in Poland and abroad, and also sits on the jury of piano competitions. In addition to numerous performances and participation in a number of festivals in the country, the pianist gave many concerts in Germany and Japan, as well as in Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy, Finland, the Czech Republic, Kuwait, Serbia, Turkey, Spain and Georgia, both solo and with orchestras – among others Capella Cracoviensis, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Kyoto City Philharmony, The North Bohemia Orchestra, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Simfonica del Valles and Süd-West Rundfunk Orchester Stuttgart.
Piotr Machnik’s phonographic output includes two CDs. The first one, recorded in 2004, includes Fryderyk Chopin’s works performed on a Pleyel instrument from 1847, which was once used by the composer and is now in the collection of the Collegium Maius museum (Jagiellonian University). The next album, “SonARTe”, released in 2008 by the Castello Creative Group, includes three sonatas – Haydn, Brahms and Prokofiev.
Piotr Machnik is associated with the Academy of Music in Krakow, where in the years 1999-2008 he was employed as an assistant, and since 2008 – after receiving his doctorate – he has been running his own piano class as an assistant professor.

Boris PETRUSHANSKY (Russia)

Boris Petrushansky`s highly original creativity and vivacious personality have gained him wide recognition as a concert pianist.
Born in 1949 in Moscow, he started playing piano at the age of five, supported by a strong musical family, and had among his teachers the eminent Heinrich Neuhaus. After studying with Lev Naumov, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1975, having already distinguished himself in major international competitions, for example at Leeds in 1969, Munich in 1971, and Terni in 1975, where he won first prize.
Ever since the summer of 1975 when he gave two unforgettable recitals at the “Festival dei due Mondi” at Spoleto and the “Maggio Musicale Fiorentino” Festival (substituting Richter), Petrushansky has not looked back. His performances have taken him to Italy, Finland, Sweden, Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Czechoslovakia, USA, Hungary, Japan, Israel, Egypt, Mexico, Taiwan and Australia. He has made various recordings with Melodia (Russia), Art & Electronics (Russia-U.S.A.), Symposium (U.K.), Fone, Agora and Dynamic (Italy).In 2006 Stradivarius (Italy) has produced the complete piano works by D.Schostakovich.
The many orchestras that he has played with include: The Petersburg Filarmonic Orchestra, The State Symphony Orchestra of Russia, The Moscow Filarmonic, The Czech Philharmonic, The Berlin Staatskapelle, The Orchestra of the Academy of Santa Cecilia, The “Maggio Musicale Fiorentino” Festival Orchestra, The Helsinki Philharmonic, The Moscow Chamber Orchestra, European Community Chamber Orchestra, The “New European Strings”, The Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, etc.
He has played with many renowned conductors, such as J.Ferencik, E.Bour, V.Fedoseev, E.-P.Salonen, V.Gergiev, A.Lazarev, P.Bellugi, M.Atzmon, D.Kitaenko, S.Sondezkis, R. Abbado, M.Shostakovich, V. Jurowsky, Lu Jia and P.Kogan. Among his partners, to name but a few, have numbered the legendary Leonid Kogan, Igor Oistrach, Misha Maisky, Dmitri Sitkovetskiy, Valeriy Afanassiev, Borodin Quartet etc.
Boris Petrushansky is a member of jury of many international competition such as “F.Busoni”  (Bolzano), “D. B. Viotti” (Vercelli), “A.Casagrande” (Terni) etc. In addition to his concert life, Boris Petrushansky is active in teaching field: from 1975 to 1979 he was teaching in Moscow Conservatory and now regularly gives Master classes in the Royal Academy of Dublin, the Purcell School of London, Rowan University (New Jersey), Van Cliburn Institute of TCU (Texas), Summer Academy of Verbier (Switzerland) and in many cities of Italy and Japan.
In June 2014 Boris Petrushansky was awarded the title of Academic by the “Accademia delle Muse” in Florence, Italy.
He is now resident in Italy and since 1990 has held a position at the Academia Pianistica “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola.

Hans-Peter STENZL (Germany)

https://www.klavierduo-stenzl.de

For over 30 years now, Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl have been setting a benchmark for pianistic brilliance, musical intelligence and sensitivity as well as nuanced illumination of complex four-hand and two-piano scores.
Studies in Stuttgart, Frankfurt and London and eleven competition prizes (1986 ARD, 1989 Dranoff) were followed by an extensive international career and collaboration with world-famous conductors, such as Gustavo Dudamel and Helmuth Rilling.
The Stenzls are also deeply devoted and highly sought-after pedagogues. They are the holders of the first international chair of piano duo studies (at the hmt Rostock/Germany) and, in addition, teach in Stuttgart (Hans-Peter) and Trossingen (Volker). In 1996 they were appointed Associates of the Royal Academy of Music London.

Volker STENZL (Germany)

https://www.klavierduo-stenzl.de

For over 30 years now, Hans-Peter and Volker Stenzl have been setting a benchmark for pianistic brilliance, musical intelligence and sensitivity as well as nuanced illumination of complex four-hand and two-piano scores.
Studies in Stuttgart, Frankfurt and London and eleven competition prizes (1986 ARD, 1989 Dranoff) were followed by an extensive international career and collaboration with world-famous conductors, such as Gustavo Dudamel and Helmuth Rilling.
The Stenzls are also deeply devoted and highly sought-after pedagogues. They are the holders of the first international chair of piano duo studies (at the hmt Rostock/Germany) and, in addition, teach in Stuttgart (Hans-Peter) and Trossingen (Volker). In 1996 they were appointed Associates of the Royal Academy of Music London.

Luca TRABUCCO (Italy) 

http://www.lucatrabucco.com

Luca Trabucco was born in Salerno and began his musical studies at Genoa’s “Nicolò Paganini” Conservatory, with Claudio Proietti in piano and Adelchi Amisano in composition. He subsequently specialized at the “Incontri col Maestro” Pianoforte Academy in Imola, first with Lazar Berman, Alexander Lonquich and Riccardo Risaliti, then with Boris Petrushansky and Piero Rattalino. Winner of several piano contests, including the “Premio Venezia” in 1993 and the “Premio Città di Treviso” in 1995, in 2000 he obtained first prize at the “Premio Città di Pavia” International Competition, in 2002 he won the Pinerolo International Competition as, in 2003, the “Chironi” International Piano Competition in Nuoro and the “Valsesia Musica” International Piano Competition, in 2004 too, he obtained first prize at the “San Nicola di Bari” International Piano Competition, he’s one of the three top prizes winners of the 2005 New Orleans International Piano Competition and, in 2007, he won the first prize at the “Palma d’oro” International Piano Competition in Finale Ligure. Luca Trabucco is also a composer and in 1991 he obtained the “Czerny Prize” for italian composers, his music is published by Edi-Pan in Rome. He currently holds a position in piano performance at the Tartini state conservatory in Trieste.