Adjudicators

The Chinese pianist Ran Jia gained international attention for her extraordinary interpretative abilities for the piano work of Franz Schubert. Tan Dun praised her as a “piano poet with dramatic skill in music making”.

A special milestone in the 2016/2017 season was her huge successful debut in the Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Music Hall. Ran Jia played the complete Schubert sonata cycle in four evenings within ten days.

In season 2018/2019, she was invited to play the complete Schubert sonata cycle at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra hall, where the live recording of all eleven sonatas was released in China in October 2019.

Ran Jia gave her European recital debut when she was 19 years old with a pure Schubert program at the Klavierfestival Ruhr and was enthusiastically celebrated by the audience and critics, "with this pianist the structures and sounds flow naturally on its own...Tremendous".

Ran Jia began her piano lessons at the age of 3 and has started to perform at the early age of seven years. In November 2005, Ran Jia made her debut at the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center New York. Ran Jia studied with Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and Hochschule for Musik Köln in Germany as well as at the International Piano Academy at Lake Como in Italy with William Grant Nabore. From 2022, she was appointed as Associate Professor in the piano department of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Noriko Ogawa has achieved considerable renown throughout the world since her success at Leeds International Piano Competition. Noriko’s “ravishingly poetic playing” (Telegraph) sets her apart from her contemporaries and acclaim for her complete Debussy series with BIS Records, confirms her as a fine Debussy specialist.

As an exclusive recording artist for BIS Records, Noriko’s latest recording is of solo music by Eric Satie. Ranging from Mozart, Rachmaninov and Debussy to contemporary composers including Alexander Tcherepnin, Vagn Holmboe, and Yoshihiro Kanno, Noriko boasts a prolific catalogue of over 30 albums.

Noriko appears with all the major European, Japanese and US orchestras including the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

She is a renowned recitalist and chamber musician, performing with artists such as Evelyn Glennie. In 2001 Noriko established a piano duo with Kathryn Stott, performing Malcolm Arnold’s Concerto for Two Pianos at the 2013 BBC Proms.

Noriko was appointed as the Chairperson of the Jury for Japan’s prestigious 10th Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in 2018 and elected to the board of the World Federation of International Music Competitions the same year. Noriko is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as well as guest educator at the Royal College of Music, Yamaha Masterclass from Tokyo to Seoul, Chetham’s International Piano Summer School and at the Hamamatsu International Piano Academy.

In addition to her busy performing and teaching, Noriko regularly judges at international competitions such as the BBC Young Musician, Munich International Piano Competition, Honens International Piano Competition and the Scottish International Piano Competition.

Described as an ‘endlessly fascinating artist’, Ashley Wass’s musical career is one of unusual creativity and variety. Alongside his work as soloist and chamber musician, he is co-founder of Mash Productions, was Artistic Director of the Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival for eleven years, has devoted over 15 years to music education, and is currently the Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School.

Ashley began playing the piano at the age of five, and studied music at Chetham’s School of Musi from age 11. In his teens he studied on a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music, where his teachers included Christopher Elton, Maria Curcio and Hamish Milne. His watershed moment came in 1997 when he won the London International Piano Competition (the only British winner thus far).

Although Ashley formally stepped back from the stage in 2017, he continues to make occasional appearances both as soloist and chamber musician. Recent highlights have included a debut at the Melbourne Recital Centre, concerts in Singapore, Italy, Spain, Dubai, Malta and France, and acclaimed performances with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and BBC NOW.

Renowned for a broad and eclectic repertoire, Ashley has received great critical acclaim for his recordings of music from a wide range of styles and eras, with glowing reviews of his interpretations of composers such as Liszt, Franck, Beethoven, and Bridge.

A long-standing collaboration with Matthew Trusler has been particularly rewarding and in 2016 they co-founded Mash Productions, a production company that is focused on realising innovative and ambitious projects.

Music education is a central focus of Ashley’s professional life. He was Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music from 2008-2018, Deputy Head of Keyboard Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music from 2018-2020, and is currently the Director of Music of both the Yehudi Menuhin School in the UK and its sister school in Qingdao.

Swedish-born violinist Erik Heide graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen in 1998 after studies with Milan Vitek. He furthered his studies at the Musikhochschule in Cologne with the Alban Berg quartet and in Helsinki with Ralf Gothóni.

Erik is one of Scandinavia’s most acclaimed chamber musicians and has together with his award-winning piano trio, Trio Ondine, won the Haydn Competition Vienna, the Parkhouse Award London, Audience Prize in both the ARD competition Munchen and the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. The piano trio has performed in concert halls such as: Wigmore Hall, Concerthaus Wien, Pablo Casals Festival. They have also been New Generation Artists for the BBC.

Erik has performed as a soloist with many orchestras and recorded several violin concertos for the Danish label Dacapo. His latest performance together with Lars Anders Tomter and Norrköping Symphony Orchestra was nominated for an American Grammy and was Editor’s Choice in the Gramophone.

Erik was first concertmaster in Copenhagen Phil between 2004-2018 and in the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra between 2017-2020. He continues to be first concertmaster of the Danish National Chamber Orchestra and performs regularly as a guest leader with orchestras across Europe. He has been invited to guest lead orchestras such as the Madrid National Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra Lisbon, Hamburg Staatsoper, Oslo Opera, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic amongst others.

Erik is a very dedicated teacher and has in recent years established himself as an exciting, innovative and energetic teacher in Scandinavia. He is a professor and Head of Strings in the University of Stavanger (Norway) and Academy of Music in Malmö (Sweden). In the coming years, Erik will work together with YOMA (Young Musicians Academy in Sweden) where he will teach the talented violinists in Sweden and around Europe between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.

Erik plays a Joseph Guarnerius violin and loves windsurfing.

Born in Aichi prefecture, in a family of musicians with three generations of violinists. Tomio Kondo, the founding concertmaster of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, is his grandfather.

After graduating from the Tokyo University of the Arts with the Acanthus Prize, Kondo completed master's degree at the same university. During his studies, Kondo attended summer courses at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he studied under members of the Alban Berg Quartet, Amadeus String Quartet and Hagen String Quartets, and got trained in the field of chamber music as well. He took part in the Caravan Concerts in 2002 and 2005 and was trained by Mstislav Rostropovich and Seiji Ozawa. His clear and beautiful tone, and dynamic performance with both delicacy and power have been well received not only in Japan, but also in Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, Canada, China, Taiwan, etc.

Currently, he is a concertmaster of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra since 2015, as well as the Future Orchestra Classics (formerly the Nagano Chamber Orchestra) and the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra. He also leads the Riverrun String Quartet as the Season Program Producer of the Nagano City Arts Center.

Kondo also teaches at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology of the University of Tokyo where he played an essential role in the establishment of the Advanced Art Design Laboratory. Kondo writes a series of essays for the Nishinippon Shimbun called "Golden Notes". He has also produced a music event, a collaboration of the Karuizawa Music Festival and the Karuizawa New Art Museum, and produced the acclaimed YouTube video content, “Children and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra played ‘Destiny’ remotely”, which was widely covered by various media as the world's first attempt during the Covid pandemic.

Currently, he is a concertmaster of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra since 2015, as well as the Future Orchestra Classics (formerly the Nagano Chamber Orchestra) and the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra. He also leads the Riverrun String Quartet as the Season Program Producer of the Nagano City Arts Center.

Mira Wang has built a remarkable bridge from her time as a child prodigy in Beijing, China to an acclaimed soloist on the world stage today.

Mira has appeared as a soloist with orchestras all over the world including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Saarbrücken Radio Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic and NDR Philharmonic Hannover.

She has premiered many contemporary concertos including the violin concerto Spring in Dresden by Chen Yi with the Staatskapelle Dresden, conducted by Ivan Fischer, John Harbison’s Double Concerto for Violin and Cello with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Carlos Kalmar, the double concerto by Wolfgang Rihm, with Jan Vogler and the Orpheus Chamber orchestra at Carnegie Hall. In 2018, she premiered a triple concerto “Alisma” by Swiss composer William Blank with Jan Vogler, Daniel Ottensamer and the Philharmonische Staatsorchester Hamburg, conducted by Kent Nagano at Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.

Mira has toured the world with famous Hollywood actor Bill Murray, cellist Jan Vogler, and pianist Vanessa Perez in a project called “New Worlds.” A live documentary movie of the show premiered in movie theaters around the world in the spring of 2022. The recording of “New Worlds” can be found under the Decca Gold label.

Mira has been Artistic Director of the Model Room Musicales concert series in New York City since 2005 and in 2013, she became Director of the Moritzburg Festival Academy in Germany. Mira became artist in residence at Bard Conservatory in 2022.