Jurors

The international 8-person jury is composed of musicians, former prize-winners, music experts, professors and journalists. The jury will select the finalists and then the winner. You will find detailed information about the jurors here.

Lidia Baich

One of the most extraordinary young violinists of today’s international concert scene, Lidia Baich began learning the violin at the age of four and won her first international competition at the age of eight. After a series of first prizes at national and international competitions, she won the 1998 EBU Young Musicians Award, which launched an international career. Since then she has performed in all the major concert halls of Europe and on concert tours in Japan, China, Korea, Israel, South Africa, Argentina and Brazil.

Last year Lidia played her debut at the Salzburg Festival, and this season she is looking forward to performing together with Seji Ozawa and Lorin Maazel. She studies with the world famous violin teacher Prof. Boris Kuschnir at the Konservatorium Wien Privatuniversität in Vienna.

Professor Carole Dawn-Reinhart

Trumpet virtuoso Carole Dawn Reinhart studied at the University of Miami, the Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst (now University of Music and Performing Arts) in Vienna, and the Juilliard School of Music. She has performed in concerts throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and America, and in numerous television shows almost all over the world. She has made recordings with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsche Bachsolisten, the Amsterdam Chamber Orchestra and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra.

Carole Reinhart has been a Professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna since 1983.

Martin Fröst

As one of the most charismatic and multi-talented instrumentalists of his generation, the young Swedish clarinet virtuoso Martin Fröst now performs regularly with major orchestras in most of the leading music centres worldwide.

A dedicated chamber musician, Martin Fröst is a highly sought-after chamber music partner and a frequent guest at international music festivals such as the Lucerne, Schubertiade, Bergen, Risör, Feldkirch, Verbier and Mondsee festivals. His fascination with new aspects of musical creativity has inspired contemporary composers like Krzysztof Penderecki, whose new Concerto for 3 Clarinets he premièred in Madrid. His sensational interpretation - including elements of choreography and mime - of Anders Hillborg’s Clarinet Concerto has earned him international acclaim.

Professor Erik Niord Larsen

Erik Niord Larsen teaches at the Norwegian Music Academy. Professor Larsen is a well-known music pedagogue and holds master classes for instruments ranging from woodwind to string ensembles. In 1998 he was awarded the Lindemann prize. He also teaches at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

Professor Erik Niord Larsen has been the solo oboist of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra since the mid-1960s. As a soloist he has given numerous performances throughout Europe with various orchestras and ensembles. Professor Larsen has performed with The Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and The Norwegian Wind Quintet for more than two decades.

Ranko Markovic

Ranko Markovic was born in Zagreb in 1957. He studied at the Hochschule Mozarteum in Salzburg and later in Moscow (Tchaikovsky Conservatory), Budapest (Liszt Academy) and London. Recent performances as a concert pianist have taken him to the Musikverein in Vienna as well as to London, Caracas and the Beijing Music Festival.


Ranko Markovic taught at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, and became Director of the Schools of Music of the City of Vienna in 1999. From 2001 to 2004 he was Chairman of the Konferenz der Musikschulwerke Österreichs (KOMU), 2002-2004 President of the Vienna Masterclasses, and 2003-2004 Deputy Chairman of the Federal Advisory Council of Austrian Music Competitions "Musik der Jugend”. In 2004 he became Artistic and Educational Director of the Konservatorium Wien university.

Professor Curtis Price

Curtis Price studied at Southern Illinois and Harvard Universities. He taught at King’s College London from 1981, latterly as Head of Department, when he established the Centre for Advanced Performance Studies jointly with the Royal Academy of Music in London. He has been Principal of the Royal Academy of Music since 1995, where he is responsible, under the governing body, for all aspects of the Academy's life and work. Since 2000 he has also been University of London Professor.

Curtis Price is a leading authority on the music of Henry Purcell. His publications also include studies of English and Italian music and opera. He was President of the Royal Musical Association from 1999 to 2002; he is a Trustee of Musica Britannica and the Handel House Museum.

Professor Hiroko Sakagami

Hiroko Sakagami studied piano in Hokkaido and later at Tokyo National University. She was a prize-winner of numerous competitions in Japan, and was awarded a scholarship for further studies with Hubert Harry in Lucerne und Nikita Magaloff in Geneva by the Swiss government’s Federal Commission for Scholarships for Foreign Students. She was awarded the Edwin Fischer Memorial Prize of Lucerne and won First Prize in the Clara Haskil Competition in Vevey.

Hiroko Sakagami performs at international music festivals and in concert halls across Europe. In recent years she has toured extensively in Canada, Ireland, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Romania. She is Professor at the Musikhochschule in Lucerne.

Heinz Sichrovsky

Heinz Sichrovsky was born in Vienna in 1954. As a “standing room only” regular at the Vienna State Opera and the Musikverein, he garnered a stable foundation for his later career. At university he combined studies in literature and musicology in an interdisciplinary programme, and later become the cultural editor of the newspaper “Arbeiterzeitung”. Since 1992 he has been Editor-in-Chief and Cultural Editor-in-Chief of the weekly magazine NEWS, his special fields being theatre, classical music and literature. He has also been involved in interdisciplinary projects relating to music and literature for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF as well as the monthly discussion concert series at the Vienna Konzerthaus.