Judges

Pianist Aleksandar Serdar won several international competition awards including the Monza, Carlo Zecchi, and Vercelli in Italy, Palm Beach and Cincinnati in the USA, and the 4th prize at the Arthur Rubinstein competition in Tel Aviv.  A native of Belgrade, Serbia, Aleksandar Serdar graduated from the Art Academy of Novi Sad, and received his Master of Music degree at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore where he studied with Leon Fleisher for five years. Later he continued his studies with Sergio Perticaroli at the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome. Currently, Serdar is a Professor of Piano at Academy of Arts in Belgrade and at the Faculty of Arts in Nis, both in Serbia. Aleksandar Serdar performed in Italy (Conservatory hall in Milano, Palermo, Venezia, Roma, Bari, Trento, Reggio, Torino), the United States (namely at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Washington DC), France (Paris-Musee d'Orsay, Auditorium du Louvre, Theatre du Chatelet, Nice, Lion, Orleon, Marseil, Toulouse, and Festivals such as La Roque d'Antheron, Sully sur Loire, St.Riquier, Piano Jacobin, Radio France Montpelier), Switzerland (at the prestigious Zurich Tonehalle), Russia (at the Saint Petersburg festival and in Moscow), Israel, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia (in Ljubljana, Bled Festival, Celje, Gorizia), Croatia (Zagreb and Dubrovnik Summer Festival), Brazil, Peru, Portugal (Lisabon festival Folles Journeaus),Maroco, Lebanon (Bustani Festival in Beirut),Thailand, Japan, Canada, Luxembourg, Germany (Munich, Nuremberg, Hamburg-Schwlesi Holstain festival). Aleksandar Serdar played with such orchestras as the Dresden Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Bremen Philharmonic, Slovenian Philharmonic, Sophia Philharmonic, San Jose Philharmonic, Cincinnati Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Belgrade Philharmonic, Zagreb Philharmonic, Athens Philharmonic, Vancouver Island Symphony, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Santa Cecilia and with conductors Marcello Viotti, Erich Kunzel, Emil Tabakov, Mendi rodan, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Milan Natchev, and Jeansuk Kahidze. Serdar's CD, released by EMI Classics, in 1988 arouse strong interest from promoters and the press. His second double disc has been released in Luxembourg in December 2004. He has recently recorded a first CD for the Serbian discographic house PGP with an all-Baroque repertoire. "Aleksandar Serdar is clearly thoughtful musician with imagination and personality"  - Gramophone, February 1999.

Ilana Vered is synonymous with vibrant piano virtuosity since the earliest days of this compelling artist's career. "Shattering," "magnificent," "dazzling," "splendid" are words critics have used all over the world to describe her on the concert stage. Renowned for the white-hot intensity of her performances, Vered now comes before her public as a musician whose art has achieved a rare balance between passion and intellect, temperament and reflection.

Vered, who has repeatedly demonstrated sovereign musical and technical command over some forty-five concertos – from Bach to Berg – has already recorded for the London label highly lauded versions of the concertos of Mozart, Chopin, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninov. She has committed to disc the complete set of Beethoven's five piano concertos with the
Warsaw Philharmonic under the baton of Kazimierz Kord, released in late 1993 by the ProArte label. Vered has to her credit a highly-praised version of the complete Chopin Etudes, Opp. 10 and 25, a brilliant recording of the complete Moszkowski Etudes, both for Connoir Records and Connoisseur Records has release a disc entitled 25 Virtuoso Etudeson which Vered offers new readings of concert etudes by Chopin, Schumann, Paganini-Liszt and Debussy.  
 
Vered began playing the piano at the age of three, and later attended the Paris Conservatory where she studied with the eminent pianist Vlado Perlemuter. Born in Israel, she graduated from the Paris Conservatory at fifteen and completed her studies at the Juilliard School in New York City under the tutorship of Rosina Lhevinne, Nadia Reisenberg and Aube Tzerko. She made her debut as one of the first winners of the Young Concert Artists International Competition.
 
She has been heard in recital in virtually all of the music centers of the world, and has been engaged and re-engaged as soloist with the leading orchestras of our time: the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, and Philharmonia, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Japan NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic. She has performed as soloist under the batons of most of the world's finest conductors, including Stokowski, Solti, Mehta, Kempe, Kondrashin, Tilson Thomas, de Waart, Slatkin, Comissiona, Conlon, Davis, Sanderling, Cassadesus, Bertini, Weller, Sawalich, Atzmon, Leppard, rodan, Judd, Foster, Bamert, Janson and Vanska. A regular participant in summer festivals, Vered has made appearances at the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York, Chicago's Ravinia Festival, Tanglewood, Caramoor, Cleveland's Blossom Festival, the Meadow-brooks Festival in Detroit and at Los Angeles' Hollywood Bowl.
 
Vered is a chamber musician of distinction and has appeared with important chamber ensembles throughout the world. She is noted particularly for her frequent performances with the Tokyo String Quartet. A highlight of this collaboration was Vered's world premiere performance with the ensemble of Ezra Laderman's Piano Quintet at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. This work, which was written for Vered and the Tokyo String Quartet, was later recorded by them for the RCA label.

Tamas Vesmas was born in Romania and began studying piano and composition at the age of ten under Professor Ella Philipp. His career as a soloist began at the age of fourteen with recitals and appearances with leading symphony orchestras throughout Romania. He continued his studies at the Bucharest Music Academy as a pupil of Florica Musicescu, Dinu Lipatti’s teacher. In 1962, he won the National Competition for Young Soloists in Bucharest, and went on to study in France with professors Yvonne Lefébure and Monique de la Bruchollerie.

His artistry won him numerous prizes at several international piano competitions, including the Gold Medal at the 1968 International Claude Debussy Competition in Paris. That same year he was invited to become an Assistant Professor at the Music Academy in Bucharest.

As a concert pianist, soloist and conductor, Tamas Vesmas has performed with many of the world's major orchestras and ensembles, and under such conductors as Simon Rattle, Jean-Claude Casadessus, Janos Fürst, Harry Blech, Kurt Redel, Carlo Zecchi, Mark Elder, Erich Bergel. His extensive chamber music experience includes partnerships with Nathan Milstein, György Pauk, Boris Bermann, Peter Frankl, Heinz Holliger, Boris Belkin, Mark Lubotsky, Cho-Liang Lin, to name a few.

His tours and appearances at major music festivals throughout five continents have included such venues as the Queen Elizabeth Hall's South Bank Piano Recital Series, and the Wigmore Hall in London, the Théatre des Champs-Elysées, and the Salle Pleyel in Paris.

He has been repeatedly invited to chair juries of numerous piano and chamber music competitions, as well as to conduct master classes world wide. He has also held distinguished teaching positions, such as Professor of Piano Studies and Chamber Music at the School of Music, University of Auckland, New Zealand. Tamas Vesmas is the founder and first Musical Director of the Auckland Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra and founder and Director of the Auckland International Piano Festival.

Tamas Vesmas’ numerous recordings can be found under various labels including Kiwi/Pacific Records (a prize-winning Brahms Album), 'ARS Studiofrance', and Ode Records. Recent CD releases under Ode Records include: "Eastern European Piano Music", "Western European Piano Music", an album of music by Alfred Schnittke for Cello and Piano, the Complete Works for Cello and Piano by Prokofiev with cellist Alexander Ivashkin, and an album of Piano Music by Bela Bartok. These recordings are complemented by an album on the BMG label (New Zealand Ltd.) featuring piano music by Debussy and Bartok, as well as a double CD dedicated to Debussy’s 24 Preludes (The complete Books 1 and 2) released in January 2000 on the Atoll label (referenced ACD 599). His interpretation of Beethoven’s Last Three Piano Sonatas op.109, op.110, and op.111 has been released on DVD in 2008 under the McCarthy Communications label. Tamas Vesmas’ life and artistic activities have also been the subject of a 2004 documentary film produced by Romanian Television.

Tamas Vesmas is now living in Paris continuing a rich international musical career as a freelance musician, conducting master classes, accepting frequent invitations to various international piano competitions.