Paolo Baglieri
Paolo Baglieri is one of the most prominent personalities of his generation. Acclaimed as “a pianist that perfectly mixes his personal view with the composer’s ideas”, he is the winner of many international piano competitions.
He has performed in Italy, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Palestine, Israel and Chile for over 300 concerts in some of the most important concert halls: Taormina, Catania, Lucca, Rome, Turin, Pistoia, Bologna, Verona, Castle of Galeazza, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Paris, Brussels, Castle d’Ursel, Haifa, Jerusalem, Madrid, Santiago of Chile among others.
He has been the piano professor at the Conservatory of Music of Jerusalem and he taught in Pavia and Siena Conservatories in Italy. Invited as jury member of international piano competitions, as Treviso, Paderewski, Malta, ClaviCologne, VeronaMusicFest, among others, currently he holds the position as President and Artistic Director of the prestigious italian
academy Talent Music Master Courses of Brescia and President of the VeronaMusicFest. He is Artistic Director and Chairman of the Brescia Classica International Piano Competition.
Born in Italy in 1984 and graduated at Catania Conservatory, he took his following degrees at “Codarts – University of Arts” of Rotterdam and at Ecole d’Enseignement Superieur de Musique,
de Danse et d’Art Dramatique “Schola Cantorum” of Paris. Major influences in his musical development were studies with Pavel Gililov, Gabriel Kwok, Benedetto Lupo, Boris Petrushansky, and Sergio Perticaroli.
Chairman
pianist
Alan Chircop
Over the past fifteen years, Alan Chircop directed several international orchestras in various theatres, concert halls and festivals. Among others, he has conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall and Westminster Central Hall in London, the Sofia Philharmonic – National Orchestra of Bulgaria, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Macedonia, L’Orchestra Citta’ di Ravenna (Italy), Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra, the Leopoli State Symphony Orchestra (Ukraine), L’Orchestre Lyrique de Region Avignon-Provence (France), the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra (Czech Republic), the Mihail Jora Philharmonic of Bacau (Romania), the Kislovodsk – Mineralnye Vody State Symphony Orchestra and the Sochi Symphony Orchestra (Russia); the Pleven Philharmonic Orchestra (Bulgaria); the Westsächsische Philharmonie and the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Symphony Orchestra Leipzig (Germany), the Camerata con Cor(d)e of Belgium and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra.
Alan Chircop’s musical tastes and repertoire are very wide ranging and apart from an extensive symphonic and concerto repertoire, he has directed several opera productions, pop-classical concerts and contemporary music premieres.
As winner of the 1993 Bice-Mizzi Vassallo Music Competition, he was awarded a one year scholarship at the Conservatoire National de Region de Musique de Lyon in France, where he studied pianoforte with Prof. Andre Chometon, obtaining the Diplome de Fin d’Etudes with distinction. He then moved to Germany to pursue his studies in Pianoforte with Prof. Christoph Taubert (1994-2001) and Orchestral Direction with GMD Prof. Gert Bahner (1997-2003) at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater – Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Leipzig. He graduated, obtaining his Masters Degree in Pianoforte in 2001 and a further Masters Degree in Orchestral Direction in 2003 He also spent a year at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, for further specialized studies in Orchestral Direction with Prof. Uros Lajovic.
Between 1997 and 2006 he was the Principal of the Euro Academy of Music and Arts in Malta. He was also Artistic Director of the Virtuoso Classics Summer Concert Series in 2005, and co-Artistic Director of the Stradivari Season Virtuoso Concerts between 2003 and 2005. Between 2006 and 2008, he was Artistic Director of the Renaissance Cultural Foundation – Malta. In 2013-2014 he served as Principal of the Visual & Performing Arts Schools within the Ministry of Education in Malta. He is the Artistic Director of the Malta International Music Festival & Competition organized by the European Foundation for the Support of Culture (Malta).
Jury Member
conductor
Yuri Didenko
Internationally acclaimed Russian pianist Yuri Didenko has performed recitals and with orchestras in the best concert halls of Moscow, including Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory and Moscow International House of Music, cities of the former Soviet Union and abroad: Belgium, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, Japan, USA, Poland, Malta, Greece, Chile, China, countries of Western Africa, Turkey, Cyprus, South Korea.
The British magazine Pianoforte referred to his performances as"bold, open, powerful, and technically accomplished old-school virtuosity."
The Belgian newspaper La Semaine d'Anvers wrote of him as a "brilliant pianist" and mentioned his "large and bright sonority" as well as dynamism.
His concerts in USA were highly appraised by the press. "Didenko captured the hearts of the audience when he performed several selections by Sergei Rachmaninov";
– a critic wrote about one of his recitals.
"Immortal works by Schubert, Liszt, and Rachmaninov sounded with an incredible force of conviction, emotional power and brightness under the magic hands of Yuri Didenko, the chairman of the Jury of Dimitrios Vikelas International competition. When the music finds its ideal interpreter, he enchants his listeners, fillings their hearts with beauty, passion, and harmony. Yuri Didenko proved to be this ideal performer."
- a Greek newspaper "Epikaira" wrote about his performance.
Didenko's wide and diverse repertoire includes works of different styles - from Bach to Messiaen and avant-garde music of the twentieth century.
Mr. Didenko studied piano at the Central Music School affiliated with the Moscow Conservatory with Alexander Mndoyants and then at the Moscow Conservatory with Professor Merzhanov. Since 1994, he has been on the piano faculty of the Moscow Conservatory. Since 2005, he has his own students.
Mr. Didenko is a prizewinner of numerous competitions in Italy, USA, Belgium, his is the winner of the International Concert Artists Competition in Royal Tunbridge Wells (Great Britain). In 2003, Mr. Didenko received the Russian Federation Ministry of Culture Award "For Special Achievements in Culture".
Yuri Didenko recorded several compact disks with various romantic and XX century works.
He made numerous recordings on the Russian State Radio.
Mr. Didenko is in demand for master classes in Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Greece, Kazakhstan, UAE, Germany, Malta, USA, South Korea, and China. He has also served on piano juries of several international piano competitions (as a member and as a chairman of the jury) in Russia, Poland, USA, Greece, Malta, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, UAE, Turkey, Spain. From 1996 to 2002, Mr. Didenko was an active member and secretary of the Rachmaninov Society of Russia. He is also member of the Presidium of the Scriabin Foundation. In March 2014 he was appointed a Vice-president of the International Rachmaninov Society (Germany).
Jury Member
pianist
Mikhail Kirchhoff
Mikhail Kirchhoff (Iskrov) was born in 1982 in Moscow.
He begun his education in the Victor Popov Academy of Choral Art. In 2009 he graduated with honours from the Moscow State P.İ. Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
He participated in numerous projects in the last several years, such as:
• The International Festival "Yurmala-classic" (Latvia, 2007, 2008)
• Easter Festival «Musical meetings in La Pre» (France, 2006 and 2008)
• A new production of F. Poulenc’s mono-opera «The human voice» during the international festival "Art November" (St.-Petersburg, 2007), nominated on the «GOLDEN MASK» award in 2008
• The International Festival "Radio Orpheus presents» (Moscow)
• The annual Festival «Rendez-vous with ….» (Moscow)
• «Young musicians of Russia and Korea» (2009)
• The International Meetings of Arts «Performance and pedagogy: the present and the prospects» (Perm, Russia, 2007)
• The International Festival «Moscow meets her friends» (Moscow, 2009г.)
• Zehra Yıldız Night XIII (İstanbul 2010)
• “Vivat Russia” Festival of Russian Language and Culture (İstanbul 2011)
• Festival ‘’Shahimardan invites friends’’ (Kazakhstan 2014 and 2015)
• International Charity Festival of Russian-Italian culture "Dark Eyes" (Italia 2015)
• Internationale Festıval ‘’Ak-Irtish’’ (Kazakhstan 2015, 2016)
• and many others.
2010 - 2012 - works in Istanbul State Opera in Turkey.
Currently he working in Samsun State Opera and Ballet Theater in Turkey.
Jury Member
conductor
Dario Mannino
Dario Mannino took the Violin graduation in Palermo at Conservatorio “Vincenzo Bellini” under the guidance of M° Giorgio Rosato and also a degree in Musicology and Music History with votation of 110/110 (thesis with Professor Paolo Emilio Carapezza). He played in some professional orchestras but he is very active as artistic manager and music consultant. In this role in 2008 he worked at International Music Festival “Accademia Mahler in Basilicata”. From January 2010 to February 2011 he was the assistant to the Artistic Direction at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence. And he worked also in the team of Music Festival Estate Regina in Montecatini Terme. Then he collaborated at Teatro Massimo Foundation in Palermo.
In 2011 he was the audition coordinator for singers in the international agency Atelier Musicale in Bologna while since 2012 has taken the role of Artist Manager in Mamusic agency in Florence.
He was also the artistic director of A.Gi.Mus. association in Palermo.
Jury Member
artist manager