Valeri
Piassetski

Russia

Valery Piassetski was born in Moscow in 1961. He graduated from the Moscow Central Music School (class of Anna Artobolevskaya) and from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory to continue his studies as a postgraduate (class of Professor Alexei Nasedkin). Valery Piassetski was a winner of the International Bach Competition in Leipzig (1984).

Vladimir
Ovchinnikov

Russia

Vladimir Ovchinnikov was born in 1958 in Bashkiria. He graduated from the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory (class of Anna Artobolevskaya) and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (class of Professor Alexei Nasedkin).
He won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1982), the Leeds International Piano Competition (United Kingdom, 1987), and the Vercelli International Chamber Ensemble Competition (Italy, 1984). He was also a laureate of the Montreal International Piano Competition (Canada, 2nd Prize, 1980). He has performed with leading orchestras around the world under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy, Valery Gergiev, Alexander Dmitriev, James Conlon, Alexander Lazarev, Dmitry Liss, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Mariss Jansons, Neeme Järvi, and other renowned conductors. The pianist's concerts have taken place in major halls and at prestigious international festivals in the USA, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Singapore. His discography includes recordings of works by Tchaikovsky, Taneyev, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Mussorgsky, Reger, and Barber.
Vladimir Ovchinnikov is a professor at the Moscow Conservatory and professor and head of the piano department at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music. He worked for several years at the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK, and from 2011 to 2016, he headed the Central School of Music.
People's Artist of Russia, People's Artist of the Republic of Bashkortostan.

Maxim
Mogilevsky

Belgium

Maxim Mogilevsky comes from an exceptionally distinguished family of musicians. Having impressed audiences worldwide with his fiery performances and distinctive interpretations, Maxim made his debut at age thirteen with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and Dmitri Kitayenko to wide spread acclaim. Since then he has gone on to perform as a soloist with major orchestras around the worldand undertaken many unique artistic projects.

William
Chen

China – Australia

Lauded by Gramophone Magazine (UK) as "an ideal champion of melody, traditional harmony and conservative values" for his piano solo album “Lifecycle”, William Chen enjoys an international reputation as a commanding concert artist with “an infectious flair for performance" (The Independent, UK). He has performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, London, as well as the Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland Symphony Orchestras in major concert halls across Australia. He has also been a featured artist at the Beijing and Shanghai Concert Halls and Shanghai Oriental Art Center. Widely acclaimed for his solo performances in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Sydney, Shanghai, and other major cities throughout Australia and China.
    His award winnings include First Prize at the Grace Welsh International Piano Competition in Chicago and The Juilliard School's prestigious Gina Bachauer International Award. He has also received the International Scholarship Award of the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in the UK and was an Inaugural Overseas Scholar of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. 
    William’s mentors include Christopher Elton, Maria Curcio, Gyorgy Sebok, Jerome Lowenthal, Elizabeth Powell and Yu Wang. He is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) and holds a Dip.RAM. He holds both the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, as well as an Artist Diploma from the Indiana University School of Music in the USA.  
William is currently Professor of Piano and Head of the Piano Department at the famed Music Middle School Affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory of Music where it is his privilege to instruct some of today’s most luminous young talents. His award winning students include 2023 The 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians piano Gold Medalist Yutian Yang and 2024 China Golden Bell Award National Youth Piano Competition Gold Medalist Yau Nam Ng. Junyan Chen, the Second Prize winner of 2024 Leeds International Piano Competition a was a pupil of William since age six for 12 years before going on to study in the UK in 2018.

Leonel
Morales

Spain

Born in Cuba, naturalized Spanish and resident in Spain since 1991, Morales studied at the University of Havana under the guidance of Maestro Frank Fernández, a student of Víctor Merzhanov, thus inheriting the deepest roots of the great Russian piano tradition. He later continued his studies in Weimar with Maestro Jacov Latainer and worked with Mihail Voskresensky during his time in Cuba as a selected student. For two years he served as assistant in the class of the great master Aquiles Delle Vigne at the Sommerakademie in Salzburg.
Professor at the Sommerakademie in Salzburg and at Alfonso X el Sabio University. Exclusive Artist of Yangtze River Piano (China), artistic director and founder of the María Herrero International Piano Competition (Granada) and the Spain International Piano Composers Competition (WFIMC) in Madrid, as well as the Granada Music Festival “Leonel Morales & Friends.” Since 2024 he has been the exclusive representative in Spain of the prestigious German piano brand Grotian-Steinweg.
Morales arrived in Spain at the age of 25 and between the ages of 26 and 28 won first prizes in several international competitions such as the Guerrero Foundation International Piano Competition, Citat de Manresa, Teresa Carreño, and the Jaén International Piano Competition, in addition to special prizes for Best Interpretation of Contemporary Music and the “Rosa Sabater” Prize for Best Interpretation of Spanish Music. He also won Second Prize at the Santa Cecilia International Piano Competition in Oporto, the Distinzione Prize at the Aosta International Piano Competition, the Sommerakademie Prize at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the William Kapell Prize, among others.
Since 2018 he has been an exclusive artist in China for the Yangtze River piano brand, performing annual concert tours in the country’s most important venues.
He is regularly invited to serve as a jury member in major international piano competitions in China, USA, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Brazil, Bulgaria, Russia. He will be a jury member of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 2027.

Justus
Frantz

Germany

Justus Frantz was born in Hohensalza, Germany. Studied piano with Elise Hansen in Hamburg and Wilhelm Kempf in Positano, and conducting with Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg. The pianist gained international fame in 1970 when he was invited to work with Herbert von Karajan. In 1986 Justus Frantz founded the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and was its artistic director for many years. He made it one of the most important festivals in Europe and created a format that became a model for many other festival institutions.

Lorenz
Nasturica-Herschcowici

Russia

Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici was born in Bucharest in 1962. He graduated with honors from the Ciprian Porumbescu Bucharest Conservatory in 1985 (class of Stefan Gheorghiu). From 1986 to 1992, he was first concertmaster of the Finnish National Opera Orchestra.
From 1992 to 2022, he was first concertmaster of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1996, he founded the Sergiu Celibidache Trio. In 2000, he became first violinist of the Berlin Philharmonic Octet. He has performed as a violinist, soloist, and concertmaster with the Berlin Philharmonic Virtuosi, the Berlin Philharmonic Soloists Sextet, and the Deutsches Sinfonietta Berlin.
From 2004 to 2022 He directed the Munich Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, and in 2022, he founded and became the director of the Munich Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra. Since 2025, he has collaborated with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra as a coach, mentor, and conductor.
From 2014 to 2017, he was a professor at the Basque Country School of Music (San Sebastian), and is currently a visiting professor at the San Sebastian Conservatory. From 2011 to 2019, he taught at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo. He is also a visiting professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music (SHCM).
In 2013, he became the director of the Stradivarius Ensemble of the Mariinsky Theatre.
He has performed with outstanding conductors and soloists, including Sergiu Celibidache, Christian Thielemann, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, and others.
Honored Artist of the Republic of Bashkortostan (2024). He plays the Antonio Stradivarius ex-Heifetz violin (1732), which was played by the young Jascha Heifetz.

Denis
Matsuev

Russia

Since his triumph in the 1998 at the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition, Denis Matsuev has become a virtuoso in the grandest of Russian pianistic tradition and has quickly established himself as one of the most prominent pianists of his generation.
Mr. Matsuev performs with the world's best known orchestras, such as the New York Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra,  BBC Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Vienna Symphony, Israel Philharmonic and Rotterdam Philharmonic, Oslo Symphony, National Orchestra of Belgium, Swiss Romande Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Verbier and Budapest Festival Orchestras, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, NHK Symphony, as well as the European Chamber Orchestra. He is continually re-engaged with the legendary Russian orchestras such as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Mariinsky Orchestra and the Russian National Orchestra.
Denis performs recitals at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, Maison symphonique de Montréal, Koerner Hall in Toronto, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, G. Verdi Conservatory in Turin, Tonhalle in Zurich, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Gasteig in Munich, Accademia Filarmonica Romana in Rome, Conservatorio di Musica Giuseppe Verdi in Milan and Flagey in Brussels.
Denis Matsuev regularly appears with the most distinguished conductors on a stage today, including Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Chailly, Christian Thielemann, Paavo Jarvi, Antonio Pappano, Charles Dutoit, Alain Gilbert, Leonard Slatkin, Myung-Whun Chung, Semyon Bychkov, Iván Fischer, Adam Fisher, Gianandrea Noseda, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Manfred Honeck, James Conlon, Vladimir Spivakov, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Yury Bashmet, Alexander Sladkovsky, Kristian Jarvi and others.
Mr. Matsuev is a frequent guest of world famous music festivals such as Verbier Festival and Lucerne Music Festival in Switzerland, BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival in Great Britain, Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in Germany, Les Chorégies d’Orange and Festival de la Rogue d’Anthéron in France, Ravinia and the Hollywood Bowl in the U.S., Chopin Festival in Poland, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Mito Festival in Italy, Montreux Festival in Switzerland, Enescu Festival in Romania, Baltic Sea Festival in Sweden and Stars of the White Nights Festival in Russia.
In 2010, in Avery Fisher Hall, the New York Philharmonic gave the orchestra’s 15,000th concert – a number unmatched by any other orchestra. Denis Matsuev was a leading soloist in this unprecedented milestone concert, which was conducted by Maestro Valery Gergiev, and was praised highly by music critics.
For many years Denis Matsuev has led numerous musical festivals and educational projects which have added to his role as a prominent public figure. Since 2004 he has organized “Stars on Baikal” in Irkutsk, Siberia (in 2009 he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Irkutsk), and since 2005 he has been the artistic director of the Crescendo music festival (a series of events held in international cities such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Tel Aviv, Kaliningrad, Paris and New York). In 2010 he became the artistic director of Annecy Music Festival in Annecy, France, with the goal to bring together Russian and French music cultures. 
In 2012 Denis Matsuev became the artistic director of I International Astana Piano Passion Festival and Competition as well as the artistic director of International Festival and Competition Sberbank DEBUT in Kiev in 2013. In 2016 Denis Matsuev as the artistic director of the Competition and chairman of the Organizing Committee started a new competition for young pianists in Moscow – Grand Piano Competition. Next editions took place in 2018 and 2021. Additionally, Mr. Matsuev is the president of the charitable New Names foundation that discovers and supports talented children and helps to develop music education in regions of his native Russia. More than 10000 children received monetary grants and/or opportunity to perform at the professional stage.
In 2007, RCA Red Seal released “Unknown Rachmaninoff” featuring Mr. Matsuev. His Carnegie Hall recital in November 2007 was released in 2009 as “Denis Matsuev – Concert at Carnegie Hall.” Mariinsky Label releases include Rachmaninoff’s Concertos No. 2, No. 3, Prokofiev’s Concertos No. 3, No. 5, Shostakovich’s Concertos No. 1, No. 2 and Shchedrin’s Fifth, performed by Denis Matsuev and Mariinsky Theatre orchestra under baton of Valery Gergiev. In April 2013 Denis Matsuev presented the record (RCA Red Seal) with Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin, accompanied by the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Alan Gilbert. In September 2013 the label LSO Live released a new disc with Denis Matsuev and LSO under baton of Valery Gergiev performing Symphonia Concertante by Szymanowski. Gramophone has chosen Denis Matsuev’s recording of Tchaikovsky Concerti Nos. 1 & 2 as their recording of the month in April 2014. 
For many years Denis Matsuev has collaborated with the Sergei Rachmaninoff Foundation, established by Alexander Rachmaninoff, the grandson of the composer. Mr. Matsuev was chosen by the Foundation to perform and record Rachmaninoff’s unknown pieces on the composer's own piano at the Rachmaninoff house “Villa Senar” in Lucerne. Later, he became the artistic director of the Foundation.
In 2021 Denis Matsuev became the artistic director of renewed Rachmaninoff Competition in Moscow with three nominations: pianist, composer and conductor.
Denis Matsuev is a laureate of prestigious Shostakovich Prize in Music as well as the State Prize of Russian Federation in Literature and Arts. He also is a People’s Artist of Russia. Denis Matsuev was named Honorary Professor of the Moscow State University. He is a member of The Presidential Council for Culture and Arts, Honored Artist of Russia and was the head of The Public Council under The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
In February 2014 Denis Matsuev was awarded the honour of performing at the official Closing Ceremony of the XXII Winter Olympic games in Sochi and at the same year UNESCO designated Denis Matsuev as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. In 2016 Denis Matsuev was announced as 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia ambassador. Denis Matsuev was awarded with State Order of Honour. And in 2017 he received Government of Russia Prize in the sphere of Culture for his International Stars on the Baikal Music Festival in Irkutsk.
As the Ambassador of FIFA World Cup Russia Denis organized the unique concert with participation of Valery Gergiev, Anna Netrebko, Placido Domingo and other stars of classical music at the Red Square in Moscow on 13th of June 2018. In 2019 Denis Matsuev was awarded with Lev Nikolaev gold medal for his significant contribution to education and popularization of science and culture. In 2021 ICMA awarded Denis Matsuev with the prize for Video Performance of the Rachmaninoff's Third concert with Riccardo Chailly and Lucerne Festival Orchestra.
Denis Matsuev was the Chairman of the jury for the International Tchaikovsky Competition in the piano category (2019, 2023).