JSFest competition

Composer,Ph.D,

Teacher at the Composition and Conducting Department of Shanghai Conservatory of Music; The first composer signed to the Central Conservatory of Music Press; Visiting Professor of Guizhou Normal University.

One of China’s most distinguished young artistic figures, recipient of numerous competition awards and honours. Bochan Li has received commissions from most of China’s premiere musical institutions and his works are frequently performed all over the world.

 Borislava Taneva is a pianist-performer, a composer, a pedagogue, a chamber musician, an organiser of musical events. Her active participation in the contemporary cultural life in Bulgaria and abroad defines her as a successful, multispectral musician.
She was born in Sofia in the family of distinguished musicians and started her musical education at a very early age. She completed her master’s degree in piano and composition at the National Music Academy “Pancho Vladigerov” in Sofia. There are some other world famous professors like Jacob Lateiner,Germaine Mounier, Vera Gornostaeva and Ludwig Hoffmann who also played a role in her development as a performer. Borislava Taneva has been a laureate of national and international piano, chamber music and composition competitions in Bulgaria, Italy, Japan, Greece, etc. She has performed multiple recitals in Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Italy, Brasil, Switzerland, Lithuania, Israel, France, Norway, Macedonia, Spain, etc. After her graduation Borislava Taneva started work as an assistant professor in the Piano Department of the Performance Faculty of the National Music Academy /NMA/ in Sofia. Currently she is a piano and pedagogical practice professor at NMA in Sofia and vice rector of the Academy.
In 2012 a Doctor's degree (PHD) was conferred on Borislava Taneva. For several years she had great success, teaching Interpretation of Contemporary Music in Athens.She gives masterclasses and delivers seminars on various topics at music colleges and academies in Greece, Swiss, France, USA, Luxembourg, Brasil, Spain, USA, Singapore, Norway, Italy etc. Prof. Taneva has appeared as a jury member in many national and international piano competitions in Greece, France, Vienna, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Serbia etc. Her students have been awarded with numerous of prizes from national and international forums and competitions. She is the author of several opuses of piano pieces for beginners, edited by MUSICA FERRUM  in London. She is the founder and a member of the Swiss-Bulgarian Association of Culture – SBAC, based in Geneva. B. Taneva was awarded with special prizes for her contribution to Bulgarian culture.

Evgeny Petrov is a composer, Professor of the Department of Orchestration and General Course of Composition in the St. Petersburg State Conservatory, Professor of the Department of Music Theory and Composition at the Petrozavodsk Glazunov State Conservatory, member of the Russian Composers Union, member of the Board of the St. Petersburg Composers Union, artistic director of the International Music Festival "Earth of Children" and laureate of Russian competitions.

Evgeny Petrov was born in 1973 in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk region. He graduated from the Saint Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in composition (2001) and finished post-graduate school (2003) under the supervision of the People's Artist of Russia, Professor Yuri Falik.

His compositions are performed at concerts and festivals all over Russia and in other countries across the world. Conductors like Mariss Jansons, Yuri Bashmet, Alexander Sladkovsky, Fabio Mastrangelo, Gintaras Rinkevičius, Gavriel Heine, Vladimir Simkin, Alexander Titov, Vladimir Altshuler, Valentin Nesterov, Alexander Chernushenkо, Arcady Steinlucht, Alim Shakh, Fyodor Lednyov, Dmitry Vasilyev, Alexey Vasilyev, Mikhail Golikov, Eduard Banko, Ivan Stolbov, Ho Chung Yeh (Taiwan) and others include Petrov’s compositions in their repertoire.

 The composer's work covers various genres. Among Petrov’s opuses one can mention his instrumental opera “Olga the Russian”, his Concerto for symphony orchestra, two symphonies (“Petersburg” and “Murals of ancient Pskov”), symphony-cantata "Monasteries of the Russian North", musical theatre performance “Russian Proverbs”, Concertino for piano and chamber orchestra “Italian Carnival”, two concertos for choir, five chamber concertos and many other chamber, choral and orchestral works, as well as music for theatre.

 Evgeny Petrov’s works are being published in the “Compozitor • Saint Petersburg” Publishing House. In 2016, the publisher released the book “The Composer Yevgeniy Petrov” by Marina Smirnova, Professor of the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory.

Dr. Hao Liu (China), composer, producer, music theory researcher, professor of composition, PhD / Master supervisor at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, member of Chinese Musicians Association, director of Shanghai Computer Music Association, is an expert of classical music, electronic music design, music technology, and music intelligence. He has made over 20 articles published in national famous magazines. He organized and participated in five national art fund projects, and established MusiCure team to assist hospitals and help patients to recover. He was also the judge for National College Students Computer Design Competition organized by Ministry of Education of China. 

He has completed around 200 works, including a great number of commissioned works for Shanghai Opera House, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Suzhou Opera Theatre, China Conservatory of Music, Xi’an Conservatory of Music, Shanghai Yue Opera House, etc. His works cover a variety of styles and include a great number of traditional and western instruments, widely performed by symphony orchestras, chamber music ensembles, and soloists, and were presented in dance operas, dramas, movies, stage performances, large musical events, recitals, and concerts. 

His students won top prizes in International Competition For Acousmatic Competition METAMORPHOSES, Belgium, International Piano Competition Smederevo Composition Competition, Serbia，International Youth Music Competition, Atlanta, USA, Donne in Musica International Composition Competition, Serbia, Denny Awards International Electronic Music Competition, etc.

Aldona Nawrocka composer, pianist, teacher, alumnus of the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (Poland), she studied composition in the class of professor Marian Borkowski. She continued studying composition in Bettina Skrzypczak’s class at the Musik Hochschule Luzern (Swiss). She participed in many workshops followed by brief studies with E. Sikora, S. Montegue, A. Brødsgaard; also during the Académie de Musique du XXéme siècle 1999, Paris, France (P. Boulez D. Robertson) and the Académie d’Ete 2001 – IRCAM Paris (B. Ferneyhough, M.-A. Dalbavie).

She is a laureate of various polish and international competitions. She compose instrumental‑, vocal‑, electronic music, working in many multimedia projects. Her works have been featured in Poland and abroad.

She currently lectures at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warszawa (Doctor of Musical Arts in composition). Since 2016, she has held the function of Head of the Laboratory of Composition, Orchestration and Score Reading 

She is a member of the Polish Composers’ Union.

Dr. Yiwen Shen is a Chinese conductor, composer, and pianist, and he currently teaches at The Tianjin Juilliard School.

She is the 1st prize of the Vienna International Conducting Competition “Wiener Schule”, the Los Angeles Conducting Competition and the Atlanta International Conductors Competition, the top prizewinner of the BMI Bucharest International Conducting Competition, and the recipient of the President’s Award from European Music Academy. He made his conducting debut in China with the National Ballet of China Symphony Orchestra at the National Performing Arts Center in Beijing. In Europe, he has led the Joseph Haydn Symphony Orchestra, North Czech Philharmonic, Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, MÁV Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Magna Graecia, Royal Camerata, Bucharest Philharmonic, and Bucharest Symphony Orchestra. In North America, he has worked with the Juilliard Orchestra, Prince George’s Philharmonic (MD), University of Maryland’s Symphony Orchestra and Repertoire Orchestra, as well as the Monteux Festival Orchestra.

Shen’s compositions have been performed in all six habitable continents and hailed as “a jaunty, vibrantly scored canvas” and “with a lucid, economical lyricism” by the New York Times. His awards include the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, Gena Raps String Quartet Award, and Arthur Friedman Prize; first prize from SCI/ASCAP Composition Commission; second prize from the First China Clarinet Composition Competition; winner of the Nashville Symphony’s Composer Lab, Minnesota Orchestra’s Composer Institute, and Albany Symphony’s Composer to Center Stage Competition; two top prizes from Chinese National Composition Competitions, Chinese Golden Bell Award, and Distinguished Achievement of the Year in Music Composition in Shanghai. Other highlights include major orchestral premieres with the Minnesota Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, American Symphony, Albany Symphony, Beijing Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, Shanghai Opera House Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, and Bard Conservatory Orchestra for its first international tour of China. His full-length ballet, The Crane Calling, commissioned by the National Ballet of China, premiered in 2015, toured over 30 cities in China, and received its European debut in 2017 and North American debut in 2018.

His music has also been commissioned and performed by ensembles such as Bowling Green Philharmonic, Aeolus String Quartet, Omer String Quartet, Colorado String Quartet, Da Capo Chamber Players, Music from China Ensemble, TALEA Ensemble, Dal Niente Ensemble, The New York Virtuoso Singers, among others.

Shen’s piano playing has been praised as “deftly” by the New York Times and “impeccable” by Seen And Heard International Concert Review. He has soloed with the Bard Conservatory Orchestra and the New Juilliard Ensemble and played with the Axiom Ensemble at Lincoln Center. He can also be heard in recording on Chinese Bamboo Flute Master Tang Junqiao’s Magical Flute of China, released by Channels Classics Records in 2007.

Shen holds a dual bachelor’s in composition and German studies from Bard College and its conservatory, a master’s and doctorate from Juilliard (where he taught from 2011 to 2016). His composition teachers include Joan Tower, George Tsontakis, and Samuel Adler and his conducting mentors are Alan Gilbert, Ludovic Morlot, Jorma Panula and Michael Jinbo.

> Evrim Demirel was educated in Izmir High School of Fine Arts and he
> studied piano with Nergis Sakirzade. Then he enrolled at Bilkent
> University in Ankara becoming a student in the Theory-Composition
> Department of the Music and Performing Arts Faculty. He earned his
> B.A. from this institution studying composition with Elhan Bakihanov,
> and went to the Netherlands for further music studies in Rotterdam
> Conservatory. He studied jazz piano under Rob van Kreeveld, electronic
> music under Rene Uijlenhoet and composition under Klaas de Vries and
> graduated from the composition and jazz- piano departments in 2005.
> Afterwards he has studied composition with Theo Loevendie in Amsterdam
> Conservatory and obtained his master degree in 2007. He finished Ph.
> D. in Mimar Sinan University in 2013 and appointed as Associate
> Professor in 2014. Currently he is working as a Professor at Jazz
> Department in İstanbul University State Conservatory
> Almost all of the works of Evrim Demirel were composed upon
> commissions and performed accordingly. Some of his works have been
> published by Donemus.
> His pieces performed by, Schoenberg Ensemble, Asko Ensemble, Nieuw
> Ensemble, Atlas Ensemble, Doelen Ensemble, Estonian National Symphonic
> Orchestra, Nederlands Strijkers Gilde, Holland Symfonia, Phoenix
> Ensemble Basel, Camerata Varaible Ensemble and among others.
> He received "European Composer Award 2022"

Dominika Eska  Polish pianist, pedagogue, composer, graduated with honors from the Academies of Music in Kraków, Warsaw, Łódź, and the Universities of Music in Wien and Graz (Austria). Nominated for the
honorable title of "Personality of the Year" in the category of culture for 2022.  Professor of piano class Jasna Góra Secondary Music School in Częstochowa Poland. Lecturer of piano workshops at Music High Schools in Poland. Her graduates are already students of many Music Academies in Poland and abroad. She has been a member of the Polish-Austrian Society for many years and represents Poland and Austria artistically in two countries. 
She has many piano successes to his credit, e.g. in national and international Piano Competitions in Poland and abroad: e.g. in Warsaw, Kraków, Łódź, the prestigious 1st Prize in the International M .Magina in Paris, laureate of Piano Competitions in Japan, Austria and Sweden. Semi-finalist of the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2005. She has released two solo albums with music by Chopin, Mozart and Liszt, as well as her own compositions for solo piano. In 2013, the pianist received the honorable title of the Regional Quality Mark of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship in the category of culture. 
She participated in the prestigious piano academy VIENNA INTERNATIONAL PIANISTS ACADEMY in the capital of Austria, gaining her artistry many times and giving concerts.
For 22 years he regularly collaborates with Vienna and Graz in Austria, belonging to the Vienna International Pianists community of the best pianists in the world. She is a multiple winner of the scholarship of the Marshal of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and the President of the City of Toruń. She is also a scholarship holder of the Prof. Regina Smendzianka and the Ministry of Culture and Art. She has performed in all important cities of the country, both solo and with orchestras, as well as in Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, Russia, Japan, Italy,
Bulgaria and Scotland. She has recorded both piano recitals and occasional interviews for Polish and foreign media. 
She performed during the Probaltica Baltic Countries Festival in Toruń in 2018. 38 years of artistic piano work, 20 years of composition and 14 years of teaching. He has over 70 solo piano pieces to his credit. In January and December 2022 and in June 2023 she went on tour in the south of Poland and in Vienna (Austria). In March, a tour in central Poland. 
Soon more concerts and masterclasses in Poland, Austria and other countries.

Jury

Artistic director of Children’s choir of the Union of composers of Russia “Preobrajhenie” («Transfiguration»), Honored worker of culture of the Russian Federation, winner of the International competitions, member of the Union of composers of Russia. Was born in 1953 in Moscow. One of  the known choir-masters in Russia. The author of choral works and songs for children. Works at the State Children’s Musical Theatre named after Natalia Sats and the Musical Theatre Helikon-Opera. Took part in jury work at the Choir Competitions INTERKULTUR in 1998-1999, 2010-2016 and also at the International Competitions in Finland, Poland, Bulgaria. Artistic Director of the Children’s and Youth Choir “Preobrajhenie”, head of the Foundation of Creative Development  “Preobrajhenie”, member of the Union of Composers of Russia, author of choral works and songs for children and adults, choirmaster at the Natalya Satz Musical Theatre and the Musical Theatre Helikon-Opera, juror at International Choir Competitions worldwide, chairman of the jury of the International Vocal and Choral, competition of Jean Sibelius in Turku, Finland. Since 1978 has worked in Children’s Choral studio «PreobraJhenie» as a teacher of a class of a violin, vocal ensemble, solfeggio and music basics. Since 1985 has worked as Artistic director of studio. In 1997 the studio was given the status of the Union of composers of Russia. In 2013 was invited to a position of the choir-master of Children’s opera studio of the Moscow State Academic Children’s musical theatre named after Nataly Sats.

In 1971 he graduated from the Leningrad State Conservatory N. And. Rimsky-Korsakov (piano class of Professor. S.M.Chenevoy, class music theory of Professor Yu.N.Tyulin). In 1972 he defended his thesis in 1990 - a doctoral. Professor (1993). Sphere of scientific interests - the history of Russian music, musical culture of the Central Asia, problems of contemporary music education. In 1969-76, he worked in Turkmenistan. From 1976 to 1999 worked in Higher Trade-Union school of culture (Humanitarian University of trade unions), in 1999 - at the Academy of postgraduate pedagogical education, 2004 - in Russian pedagogical university A.I. Herzen. Invited Professor at the Institute of musicology at Leipzig University. The author of five monographs, more than four hundred articles in scientific journals of Russia and foreign countries. Specializes in the genres of piano ensemble and accompaniment. Zam. Chairman of the St. Petersburg Association of piano duets. Chairman of the organizing Committee of the competition «Brother and Sister», member of the jury all-Russian competition of piano duets A.G. Bahchieva. The author of original compositions, arrangements and transcriptions for choir heard on the Philharmonic stages in different countries. One of the leaders of the Union of Composers of Russia, since 1994 - Chairman of the audit Committee of the UK St. Petersburg, from 1995 to 2010 - Chairman of the audit Committee of the IC of Russia. At the tenth Congress of the Union of composers of Russia (2010) elected Secretary of this creative organization. Chairman of the Dissertation Council of the faculty of music University A.I. Herzen. Honorary worker of higher professional education of Russia (2012).

Soundarie David Rodrigo, is a Pianist, Music Educator, Choraldirector, Composer, and Intellectual Property Lawyer. She pursed her musicaleducation at the Royal College of Music, London, specializing in piano performance and piano accompaniment. She also pursued her legal studies at the University of California, Berkeley where she specialized in Entertainment Law, having being a recipient of the Rotary World PeaceScholarship. Soundarie is the Founder and Music Director of Sri Lanka's premiere female ensemble 'Soul Sounds' the first choir in Sri Lanka to perform and win awards internationally. Over the last sixteen years Soul Sounds has given highly acclaimed performances in India, Australia, China, Kuwait, Austria, France, USA, Malaysia and South Africa, thus placing Sri Lanka on the map of  nternationalchoralMusic. She is the Founder of one of SriLanka's leading Mus c Academies - The SoulSounds Academy focusing on all aspects of music. The Academy focuses on Music Education for young children starting at the age of 5 and has classes for Voice, Piano, Violin, Music Therapy, Drums, Guitar, and basic appreciation of Music classes.
Soundarie has directed many Music Productions and has collaborated with many artists for concert recitals. Soundarie is also the Sri lankan Representative on the World Choir CouncilCouncilfor INTERKULTUR - the International Organisation that hosts severalcelebrated lnternationa I Choral Festivals and Competitions.
She also regular y serves as a jury member at international choral competitions. She was one of the judges for the franchised talent show 'SriLanka's got Talent' Soundar e plays an important role Inthe promotion of culture and artsin Sri Lanka and the region. She was the Deputy Director at the SAARC Cultural Centre based  in Sri Lanka from 2010 having set up all its programs from inception andlater on was  Director, Programs for the Colombo CulturalHub rill 2018. Her awards include the SAAAC Woman of Achievement Award, the Zonta Award, the Bunka Award presented by the Japan/Sri Lanka Association and most recently the Women InManagement Award 2019/ 20 for the Arts and CreativeIndustry.