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 Shmuel Ashkenasi (Israel)  |
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 Wilma Smith (NZ/Australia)  |
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Born in Tel Aviv, he began his musical training at the Musical Academy of Tel-Aviv studying with legendary pedagogue Ilona Feher, the teacher of such violinists as Pinchas Zuckerman and Shlomo Mintz. He arrived in the United States while still young and studied with Efrem Zimbalist at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Ashkenasi captured top prizes at the 1962 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Russia, the Merriweather Post Competition in Washington, and the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Belgium. As a soloist, he has toured the Soviet Union twice and plays concerts every year throughout Europe, Israel and the Far East. He has performed with American orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, and the orchestras of Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Zurich, Rotterdam, Geneva and Stockholm. Among his solo recordings are the Paganini Violin Concertos No. 1 and No. 2 with the Vienna Symphony on the Deutsche Grammophon label, the two Beethoven Romances, and the Mozart A Major Concerto.
In 1969, Ashkenasi formed the Vermeer Quartet at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and remained as its first violinist throughout the quartet's career. The Vermeer Quartet held residencies at Northern Illinois University and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. Its discography includes works of Beethoven, Bartok, Dvorák, Haydn (a Grammy-nominated recording of the Seven Last Words of Christ), Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi.
Ashkenasi is also a noted pedagogue, currently holding the posts of Professor of Violin at Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts and the Curtis Institute of Music.
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Pamela Frank has performed regularly with today's most distinguished soloists and ensembles, including such orchestras as those of Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Baltimore, as well as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Israel philharmonics under esteemed conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Chrisoph von Dohnanyi, Bernard Haitink, Seiji Ozawa, Andre Previn, and Leonard Slatkin. As a recitalist, she is often heard in the major cities of the world. Her chamber music projects include performances with such artists as Peter Serkin, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, and her father, Claude Frank, and frequent appearances with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Musicians from Marlboro. She was awarded a coveted Avery Fisher Prize in 1999.
Philippe Graffin's individual style of playing and outstanding achievements have already placed him among the finest of French violinists. A student of the late Joseph Gingold and Philipp Hirschhorn, Graffin's interpretations of his native repertoire compelled Gramophone magazine to proclaim "his understanding of the idiom is second to none," while his charismatic and imaginative performances of the mainstream and contemporary repertoire have been praised throughout the world by audiences and reviewers alike.
Philippe's ever-questing mind led him to rediscover original settings of classics such as Chausson's Poème and Ravel's Tzigane. He has also brought back to life the forgotten violin concertos of G. Fauré, Saint-Saëns and the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, as well as championing rare sonatas such as the Bruno Walter, thereby expanding the repertoire.
Philippe has shared the stage with some of the greatest musicians of our time: Lord Menuhin, M. Rostropovich, Martha Argerich, S. Commisiona, Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Additionally he regularly partners the cellists Gary Hoffman, Truls Mork, pianists Pascal Devoyon, Stephen Kovacevich, Claire Désert and the Chilingirian Quartet to name but a few.
Philippe Graffin is the founder and artistic director of "Consonances," the international chamber music festival of St Nazaire, France and is invited regularly to appear at the major chamber music festivals across Europe and the United States. He has also appeared in the BBC Proms Chamber Music series and been invited to be Artistic Director of several chamber music projects at London's Wigmore Hall.
As concerto soloist, he has performed all over Europe with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Hague's Residentie Orkest, Gothenburg Symphony, Czech Philharmonic and the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Contemporary music forms an essential part of Philippe's interests. A number of composers have written for him: most recently the Lithuanian composer Vytautas Barkauskas has received the 2004 Lithuanian National Prize for Art for his violin concerto "Jeux", which he dedicated to Philippe. Graffin also premiered Barkauskas's Duo Concertante for violin and viola with Nobuko Imai at the Vilnius Festival and gave the first performances in France and Russia of Rodion Shchedrin's new work for violin, trumpet and orchestra, Concerto Parlando. David Matthews wrote his 2nd violin concerto for Philippe and Yves Prin, Vassili Lobanov and Philippe Hersant have written solo pieces for him.
Philippe has made numerous landmark recordings for Hyperion that have won many awards, including the complete Chausson chamber music, the three Saint-Saëns violin concertos and a wonderful collection of rare French works for violin and orchestra. Recent releases for Avie Records include the concertos of Dvorak and Coleridge-Taylor and a recital CD of Debussy, Enesco & Ravel. In addition to his recordings last year for Avie of Elgar's Violin Concerto and Chausson's Poème in original manuscript versions and for ASV Gold of Miklos Rosza's Sinfonia Concertante, this year has seen the release of a 2-CD set of Mozart's Duos for Violin and Viola and Sinfonia Concertante with Nobuko Imai.
Highlights of the 2006/7 season included tours to Korea and Japan, a performance of Miklos Rosza's Sinfonia Concertante with Raphael Wallfisch and the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London and a special 150th anniversary performance of the Elgar Violin Concerto with Vernon Handley and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Philippe continues to champion the Coleridge-Taylor Violin Concerto with a performance in February 2007 with The Philharmonia Orchestra in London to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the UK and in October 2007 with the Orchestre National d'Ile de France. 2007/8 also includes the UK première of Rodion Shchedrin's Concerto Parlando with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a concert in the Wigmore Hall's Grieg centenary celebrations and tours to Germany, Holland, France and Finland.
Philippe has been appointed Artist in Residence at the University of New York at Stony Brook from the season 2007/8. Philippe Graffin plays a Domenico Busano violin, made in Venice, 1730
Hailed for his outstanding artistry, musicianship and virtuosity, violinist Dong-Suk Kang has performed on five continents to extraordinary acclaim. Dominic Gill, a London music critic, describes Dong-Suk Kang in his book The Book of the Violin, as "...already one of the world’s great violinists. His flawless technique and perfect bow arm certainly produce one of the most beautiful violin tones to be heard anywhere today".
Ormandy, Serkin, Menuhin, Francescatti, and other eminent musicians also have praised him as one of the most outstanding violinists of his generation and a musician of the highest order.
Born in Korea, Dong-Suk Kang went to New York in 1967 to study at the Juilliard School and later at the Curtis Institute with Ivan Galamian.
He first came to the attention of the American public in 1971 when he created a sensation by winning both the San Francisco Symphony Foundation Competition and the Merriweather Post Competition in Washington D.C..
Following a debut at the Kennedy Center and an appearance with Seiji Ozawa, he went on to win top prizes in a number of international competitions including the Montreal, the Carl Flesch in London and the Queen Elisabeth in Brussels.
Since then, he has appeared with many great orchestras of the world including those of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Baltimore, Washington and Montreal in America, and Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonia, BBC Orchestras, Halle, Birmingham, Scottish National, Munich, Stuttgart, Gewandhaus, French and Belgian National Orchestras, Gothenburg, Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Polish National and Rotterdam in Europe.
Tours of Asia have brought performances with the orchestras of NHK, Yomiuri, Tokyo Metropolitan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Beijing, Shanghai, KBS and Seoul Philharmonic with whom, he has toured the U.S.A. and Europe.
He also toured extensively in Australia playing with all six orchestras of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The conductors he has worked with include Dutoit, Ozawa, Mazur, Jarvi, Menuhin, Salonen, Slatkin, Chung, Barshai, Jansons, Norrington, Foster, Svetlanov, Berglund, Lazarev and Herbig.
He has performed at major music centers and festivals throughout the world and his concerts, such as London Proms, were frequently televised and broadcast on the radio in many countries. His strong interest in chamber music has resulted in his participation at various chamber music festivals including those in Spoleto, Santa Fe, Kuhmo, Korsholm, Seattle, Vancouver, Newport and Australian Festival of Chamber Music. As a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center he has performed in New York and toured throughout the country.
Dong-Suk Kang’s wide-ranging repertoire includes all the standard works as well as many unusual and neglected works. He has recently given the premier of the violin concerto « Mistral » by Alan Hoddinott in Great Britain which was commissioned by BBC as well as the Asian premier of the the Third Concerto by Isang Yun at the opening concert of World Music Days Festival after having performed Isang Yun’s First Concerto earlier.
In the field of recording, in addition to the well-known works, such as Vivaldi Four Seasons (with The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields), he has recorded Nielsen and Elgar concertos, complete chamber music of Honegger and Alkan, and Furtwängler Sonata.
His recordings have won critical acclaim and awards among which are the Grand Prix du disque from both the Académie Charles Cros and the Nouvelle Académie du disque. His Walton Concerto CD was chosen as the CD of the month by the Gramophone magazine and nominated for the Gramophone Award 2000.
Dong-Suk Kang is a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul and artistic director of MusicAlp Festival in France and the Seoul Spring Festival in Korea.
The Ukrainian-American violinist Oleh Krysa, long esteemed in the former USSR as a distinguished soloist, chamber musician and teacher, made his American debut in 1971 at Carnegie Hall with a performance that won glowing reviews from the critics. Heralded by the New York Times as “a performance to make a violinist’s reputation had he come without one”. After an 18-year absence from the American concert stage, his appearances in 1990 at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center were again met with exceptional critic acclaim and confirmed his reputation as a master of his instrument.
A prominent student of David Oistrakh, Oleh Krysa won major prizes in such international competitions as the Wieniawski, Tchaikovsky and Montreal, and was outright winner of the Paganini Competition. When he won first prize in the Paganini Competition, the local press speculated he must have been born with a violin in his hands.
After completing his postgraduate work, Oleh Krysa began his teaching career as chairman of the Violin Department at the Kiev Conservatory. In 1973 he took the same position at the Gnesins Musical and Pedagogical Institute in Moscow and, two years later, returned to the Moscow Conservatory as Professor of Violin, where he remained until 1988. Currently he is Professor of Violin at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.
Oleh Krysa has performed in major music centres throughout the world, with leading orchestras and conductors and ensembles. He has also appeared at major festivals in North America, Europe and Far East. In addition to his thriving solo career, Oleh Krysa was leader of the celebrated Beethoven String Quartet 1977-87.
Oleh Krysa is also a champion of contemporary music and has worked closely with Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Krzysztof Penderecki, Valentin Silvestrov, Myroslaw Skoryk, Virko Baley and Vyacheslav Artyomov. He has premiered a number of their works and many have been written specifically for him.
He has recorded on the MELODIYA, BIS, TRITON, OLYMPIA, AMADIS, POLSKIE NAGRANIE, TNC and RUSSIAN DISC labels.
Oleh Krysa has served on the jury panel of the Tchaikovsky, Wieniawski, Paganini, Kreisler, Oistrakh, Lipizer and Montreal Violin Competitions.
Mr. Krysa’s upcoming engagements include a concert tour this year of the USA, Canada, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, China, Korea and Japan.
Oleh Krysa is married to pianist Tatiana Tchekina who has been his partner in most of his recitals and recordings over the years.
Wilma Smith (New Zealand/Australia)
Concertmaster of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra since 2003, Wilma Smith combines her love of the symphonic repertoire with a busy chamber music life both in her adopted home of Melbourne and in New Zealand, where she was raised.
After leaving Fiji, her birthplace, as a small child, Wilma took all musical opportunities on offer in her new home of Auckland, New Zealand, culminating in study at Auckland University and early professional experience with the Auckland Symphonia (now Philharmonia) and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. She then continued her studies in Boston at the New England Conservatory with the legendary Dorothy DeLay and Louis Krasner, playing in masterclasses for many others including Joseph Gingold, Yehudi Menuhin and Sandor Vegh.
She was founding first violinist of the Lydian String Quartet, prizewinners at Evian, Banff and Portsmouth International Competitions and winners of the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music. An opportunity to start the New Zealand String Quartet took her back to Wellington in 1987 and she was first violinist until her appointment as Concertmaster of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in 1993. Prior to her departure for Melbourne the NZSO named her Concertmaster Emeritus.
Wilma has enjoyed a longstanding duo partnership with pianist, Michael Houstoun and since moving to Melbourne has formed the Munro/Smith/Berlin Trio with Ian Munro (piano) and David Berlin (cello). She regularly returns to New Zealand for chamber music collaborations including a recent series of concerts for the International Festival of the Arts in Wellington with Steven Isserlis (cello), Melvyn Tan (piano), Michael Houstoun (piano) and Carolyn Henbest (viola).
Artistic Director of the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra and of his own Camerata Europeana in Stuttgart, Radoslaw Szulc has long been renowned as one of Europe's leading concertmasters and is now making his mark as a conductor of exceptional quality.
Radoslaw Szulc first took up violin lessons with his mother Halszka Süss at the age of 8; at 16 he won the National Wieniawski Competition in his native Poland; and added many prestigious prizes - not least in Finland's Sibelius Competition - in the ensuing years. In 1999 he was appointed by Lorin Maazel as First Concertmaster of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; and has also been a regular guest leader with orchestras including the Philharmonia and London Symphony Orchestra.
Working under conductors such as Wolfgang Sawallisch, Mariss Jansons, and Riccardo Muti inspired him in the early stages of his own conducting career; and in 2002 Sir Colin Davis recommended him for the prestigious Vienna Music Academy where he studied in the conducting class of Leopold Hager. Two years later, he gave his conducting debut in Japan with the Osaka Philharmonic.
Recent and upcoming engagement highlights include Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, MDR Leipzig, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Belgrade Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia and Tonhalle St Gallen. He has toured with the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra in Italy, Switzerland and Spain with acclaimed soloists such as Mischa Maisky, Julian Rachlin and Sabine Meyer. Last year he made an enthusiastically received debut in the ‘Goldener Saal’ of the Musikverein, Vienna. Early in 2007 he stepped in at very short notice to conduct the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, making such a success of the programme, including Bruckner’s Symphony 4, that reviewers hailed the event "not so much a loss as an extraordinary revelation". The CBSO immediately re-invited him for the following season.
Dr Robin Congreve (New Zealand) - Chairman of the Jury
Dr Congreve was for 10 years a partner in Russell McVeagh McKenzie Bartleet and has since then been a director of a number of public and private companies including Lion Nathan Ltd, BNZ, Comalco NZ Ltd and Tru-Test Ltd. He is a principal of Oceania & Eastern, a New Zealand private equity group and investor in NeuronZ, EndocrinZ and now Neuren.
Robin was the founding chairman of the Auckland Medical School Foundation and it was that interest that led to the formation of NeuronZ initially within Auckland University and to the subsequent development of both NeuronZ and EndocrinZ.
Dr Congreve is on the Art Gallery Foundation Board, Founder & Principal Donor of The Walters Prize, Governor of Arts Foundation, ex Chairman of the New Zealand Opera and Member of Museum of Modern Art and Tate International Councils.
Previous International Judges
As with the Preliminary Panel, previous International Judges are rotated from the "Judges Pool" to ensure, over the years, that a breadth of musical traditions and nationalities are represented.
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2007 Competition |
2005 Competition
Pierre Amoyal, France/Switzerland Justine Cormack, New Zealand Dong-Suk Kang, Korea Mark Kaplan, USA Paul Kantor, USA Dene Olding, Australia Krzysztof Wegrzyn, Poland/German | ||
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2003 Competition |
2001 Competition | ||
