The Jury Panel
Competition Director & Jury Chair |
Prof' Zvi Plesser studied with Zvi Harel in Israel and David Soyer in the USA, and is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with Zara Nelsova. He has won numerous awards including First Prize at the Washington International Competition and was an AICF scholarship recipient. He made his American debut at Carnegie Hall at the age of 17 and has performed with many leading orchestras both in Israel and abroad, including the Israel Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. In 2002 he performed the world premiere of Bardanashvilli’s Dialogues for Cello and Orchestra with the Israel Symphony Orchestra. Zvi Plesser is currently on the faculty of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. He is frequently invited to give master classes and to coach in music centers in Europe and the USA
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Mihaela Martin |
Romanian-born Mihaela Martin began violin studies with her father at the age 5, continuing with Stefan Gheorghiu. She has won numerous international competitions, including top prizes at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition and the First International Violin Competition in Indianapolis. She has performed with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Mozarteum Salzburg and Leipzig Gewandhaus, under conductors including Kurt Masur, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Charles Dutoit and Neeme Järvi. She performs at major international chamber music festivals with musicians including Martha Argerich, Nobuko Imai and Yuri Bashmet and has broadcast on radio and TV, and recorded on DVD. In 2002 she formed the Michelangelo String Quartet. Mihaela Martin gives masterclasses all over the world and teaches at the Cologne Music Academy, the Barenboim-Said Academy, and the Kronberg Academy. She plays on a 1748 Guadagnini violin
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Frans Helmerson |
Swedish cellist Frans Helmerson began his musical training with Guido Vecchi in Gothenburg, before moving on to study with Giuseppe Selmi in Rome and William Pleeth in London. Sergiu Celibidache and his mentor Mstislav Rostropovich also played a very influential role in his artistic development. In 1971, he won the renowned Cassado Competition in Florence – the first of many distinctions. Frans Helmerson has spent many years as the artistic director of the Umea-Korsholm International Chamber Music Festival. Frans Helmerson was a soloist with many of the finest conductors, and received outstanding critical acclaim for his concerts and recordings. In addition to his career as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor, Frans Helmerson taught for several years as a professor at the conservatories in Cologne and in Madrid. Since 2011/12, he has been teaching as a Guest Professor at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin. 2016 saw him gain an additional professorship at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin. He plays a cello by Stefan-Peter Greiner
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