Jury

People’s Artist of Russia

Born in Moscow in 1953, Valery Gergiev studied under the legendary conductor Ilya Musin.

While still a student at the Leningrad Conservatory, he won the Herbert von Karajan Competition in Berlin and the All-Union Conducting Competition in Moscow. He was then invited to join the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Theatre as assistant to the principal conductor. He made his debut in 1978 with Prokofiev’s War and Peace.

In 1988, Gergiev was appointed Music Director of the Mariinsky Theatre, and in 1996 became its Artistic and General Director. Since December 2023, he has also served as General Director of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia and Co-Chair of the Union of Theatre Workers of Russia in charge of musical programming.

Under his leadership, the Mariinsky has established a tradition of major festivals marking composers’ anniversaries, featuring rare and forgotten scores. The Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under his baton performs an expansive repertoire—from Beethoven to Galina Ustvolskaya, Rodion Shchedrin, and many others.

Thanks to Gergiev’s vision, the Mariinsky has developed into a unique theatre and concert complex: the Concert Hall opened in 2006, Mariinsky II in 2013; its Vladivostok branch (Primorsky Stage) opened in 2016, and the Vladikavkaz branch in 2017.
On the international stage, Gergiev made his debut in 1991 at the Bavarian State Opera, followed by appearances at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, and many other leading opera and concert venues worldwide.

He is a three-time laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation, Hero of Labour of Russia, recipient of the Orders of Merit for the Fatherland (2nd, 3rd, and 4th class), the Order of Alexander Nevsky, and numerous high state honors from other countries.

Born in Germany, Julien Salemkour studied composition with Alfred Koerppen in Hanover and conducting with Hans-Herbert Joris and Michael Gielen at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

At the age of eighteen, he began working as a répétiteur in Salzburg, later holding positions in Leipzig, Mannheim, Bielefeld, and Berlin. He served as assistant to such celebrated conductors as Christoph von Dohnányi, Sir Georg Solti, Michael Gielen, Pierre Boulez, and Daniel Barenboim.

From 2000 to 2003, he worked as Barenboim’s assistant and conductor at the Berlin State Opera, where he led more than 300 performances. As guest conductor, he has appeared at La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, the Semperoper Dresden, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, the Hamburg State Opera, and the New National Theatre in Tokyo.

On the concert stage, he has worked with the Romanian Radio National Orchestra; the Elbphilharmonie Orchestra; the NDR Symphony Orchestra; the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra; the Bamberg Symphony; the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra (Venezuela); and the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin.

He has performed with artists including Rolando Villazón, Anna Netrebko, Christine Schäfer, René Pape, Fabio Sartori, and others.

Throughout his career, he has maintained close collaborations with Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said, as well as with musicians of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in their music education initiatives in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

He teaches masterclasses for young conductors at the Geneva Conservatory, the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, and the Berlin University of the Arts.

In 2023, he made his debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

People’s Artist of Russia (2016), People’s Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan (2020)

Born in Taganrog in 1965, Alexander Sladkovsky graduated from both the Moscow and St. Petersburg Conservatories, studying conducting with Vladislav Chernushenko. He is a laureate of the S. S. Prokofiev International Competition (1999).

He made his debut in 1997 at the Opera and Ballet Theatre of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He served as assistant to Mariss Jansons and Mstislav Rostropovich, was Chief Conductor of the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella (2004–2006), and conductor of the “New Russia” State Symphony Orchestra (2006–2010).

Since 2010, he has been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan. Under his leadership, the orchestra has performed at La Folle Journée in Japan (2014) and France (2019), at Brucknerhaus in Linz and the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna (2016), and in China (2018). The orchestra has also toured in Turkey, Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Dubai, and Oman.

Sladkovsky has led major recording projects with Melodiya and Sony Classical, including Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 1–3; the complete symphonies and instrumental concertos by Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky; all symphonic works by Rachmaninoff; the nine symphonies of Beethoven; and orchestral works by Stravinsky.

He is the founder of numerous festivals—Rakhlin Seasons, White Lilac, Kazan Autumn, Concordia, among others—and initiator of youth and outreach programs, including charitable projects.

Since 2021, he has served as Professor at the N. G. Zhiganov Kazan State Conservatory.

He received the S. V. Rachmaninoff International Prize (2019) and the “440 Hertz” Grand Orchestra Prize (2022).

The youngest representative of a renowned musical dynasty, Dmitry Yurovsky was born in Moscow in 1979 He studied conducting at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin. Since 2005, he has been active as a conductor in both opera and symphonic repertoire.

He has collaborated with many of the world’s leading opera houses, including the Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Paris National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, La Fenice in Venice, the Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

As a symphonic conductor, Yurovsky has worked with the BBC Philharmonic, Munich Radio Orchestra, the Dresden, Hong Kong, and Shanghai Philharmonics, the symphony orchestras of Portugal, Hamburg, and Vienna, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Svetlanov State Academic Symphony Orchestra, the

Russian National Orchestra, the Tchaikovsky Grand Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.

From 2011 to 2019, he served as Chief Conductor of the Royal Flemish Opera in Antwerp and Ghent. He was Chief Conductor of the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra in Moscow (2011–2018), Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre (2015–2021), and Artistic

Director of the same theatre from 2021 to 2024.

Since September 2023, Dmitry Yurovsky has held the position of Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Dmitri Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Born in Kaohsiung (Taiwan), Christopher Chen studied piano at the Queensland Conservatorium in Australia and conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium. He continued his conducting education at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore under Gustav Meier.

In 2005, he won the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award, which led to an invitation to collaborate with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival.

From 2007 to 2011, he served as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Jiangsu Symphony Orchestra, Professor at the Shanghai Conservatory, and Artistic Director of the Suzhou Culture and Arts Centre.

In 2013, he became Head of the Music Academy at Suzhou University. Since 2014, he has led the Baroque Camerata in Taiwan and the Tapiola Youth Symphony Orchestra in Finland.

He has worked with orchestras across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Athens State Orchestra, the Moscow State Academic Symphony Orchestra, and the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra. Since 2022, he has served as Principal Guest Conductor of the State

Academic Symphony Orchestra of Tatarstan.

In 2016, he was appointed General and Artistic Director of the Jiangsu Performing Arts Center in Nanjing, where he has hosted artists such as Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Anna Netrebko, Leonidas Kavakos, and the Vienna, Munich, Israel, and London Philharmonic Orchestras.

Chen is an expert with China’s prestigious "Thousand Talents" program, the country’s highest honor for foreign specialists. He is also Honorary Professor at Shenzhen University and Director of the Center for Innovation in Musical Research, Composition, and Performance at at Communication University of Zhejiang in Hangzhou.

Born in Poland in 1944, Justus Frantz studied piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and continued advanced training with Wilhelm Kempff.

In 1967, he won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. He made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan in 1970 and with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein in 1975 He later collaborated with such conductors as Yehudi Menuhin, Rudolf Kempe, Sir Georg Solti, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, Dmitri Kitaenko, and Sir Colin Davis.

As a conductor, Frantz has performed with the Vienna, Munich, and Osaka Philharmonic Orchestras; the London Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras; the Orchestre de Paris; the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich; the Symphony Orchestra of Italian Radio and Television; Sinfonia Varsovia (Warsaw); and orchestras from

Armenia, Georgia, China, South Korea, and the United States.

He regularly works with leading Russian soloists and ensembles, including Valery Gergiev, Yuri Bashmet, Alena Baeva, Alexander Rudin, the Svetlanov State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia, the “New Russia” State Symphony Orchestra, and the Tchaikovsky Grand Symphony Orchestra.

Frantz maintains a close partnership with the Mariinsky Theatre. As music director and conductor, he staged Mozart’s The Magic Flute (1993) and The Marriage of Figaro (1994), and since 2022, has performed regularly across all Mariinsky stages.

He initiated and organized several major festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (1986), which he led as Intendant until 1995, and has served since 1999 as Artistic Director of the Finca Festival Frantz & Friends in the Canary Islands.

Frantz has received numerous honors from Germany, Spain, Russia, Israel, Lithuania, and other countries.

Honored Artist of the Republic of Bashkortostan (2024)

Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici graduated in 1985 from the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory in Bucharest, where he studied violin with Ștefan Gheorghiu. He served as concertmaster of the Finnish National Opera Orchestra (1986–1992) and the Munich Philharmonic (1992–2022), performing with such renowned conductors as Sergiu Celibidache, Christian Thielemann, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, and Valery Gergiev.

From 2000 to 2017, he was guest concertmaster and soloist with the Basque National Orchestra in San Sebastián. In 1996, he founded the Celibidache Trio and toured widely with the ensemble. In 2000, he became first violin of the Berlin Philharmonic Octet. He has also performed as soloist and concertmaster with the Berlin Philharmonic Virtuosi, the Philharmonic Soloists Sextet, and Deutsche Sinfonietta Berlin.

In 2012, he established the Philharmonic Soloists Octet, bringing together musicians from the orchestras of Berlin, Munich, and Vienna. From 2004 to 2022, he led the Munich Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, performing internationally with acclaimed soloists such as Hélène Grimaud, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Nikolaj

Znaider, David Fray, Martin Stadtfeld, Vadim Repin, Nikolai Lugansky, and Daniil Trifonov.

Since 2022, he has directed Münchner Virtuosen, a chamber orchestra he founded.

In 2013, he became Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Theatre’s Stradivarius Ensemble, which continues to perform regularly in St. Petersburg and tour throughout Russia and abroad.

He has taught at Senzoku Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo (2011–2019), served as violin professor at Musikene in the Basque Country (2014–2017), and since 2022 has been a guest professor at the Shanghai Conservatory.

Honored Artist of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), 2016

Born in 1973 in Spain, César Álvarez studied at the Oviedo Conservatory and later in Madrid under Benito Lauret. He completed his postgraduate training in opera and symphonic conducting at the Moscow Conservatory, studying with Dmitri Kitayenko and Igor Dronov.

From 2001, he spent ten years as Principal Conductor of the Tomsk Academic Symphony Orchestra.

He has collaborated with many of the world’s leading ensembles, including the Russian National Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of Spanish Radio and Television (RTVE), the Albanian Radio and Television Orchestra, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, the Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra, the State Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Symphony Orchestra of Murcia, and the Philharmonic Orchestras of Oviedo, Málaga, and Brno.

Maestro Álvarez has worked with such acclaimed soloists as Denis Matsuev, Nikolai Petrov, Ekaterina Mechetina, Viktor Tretyakov, Liana Isakadze, Alena Baeva, Vadim Repin, Alexander Rudin, and Gregory Kunde, among others.

He tours extensively across Russia, Europe, the United States, South America, China, and Vietnam. His teaching credentials include positions in orchestral conducting at the Murcia State Conservatory and at Vanderbilt University (Tennessee, USA).

He has served on the juries of numerous international competitions, including the inaugural Rachmaninoff International Competition for Pianists, Composers, and Conductors.

A special chapter in his artistic life was his close collaboration with the legendary composer Eduard Artemyev, with whom he worked as musical director on many major projects.

Born in Beirut in 1964, George Pehlivanian studied conducting in Los Angeles with Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, and Ferdinand Leitner, and later refined his skills at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena.

In 1991, he became the first American to win the Grand Prix at the Besançon International Conducting Competition in France.

He has conducted many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the London, Israel, Rotterdam, Czech, and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras; the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra; the Rome Opera; the National Academy of Santa Cecilia; the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France; the BBC Philharmonic; the national orchestras of Spain, Belgium, and the Russian National Orchestra.

As an opera conductor, he has worked with major companies across Europe and the United States, including the Mariinsky Theatre, the Opéra National de Bordeaux, and the theatres of San Carlo, Reggio, and Massimo.

In 2020, he founded the Slovenian Festival Orchestra and the Pehlivanian Professional Opera Academy.

He taught for many years at the Paris National Conservatory and at the Katarina Gurska Higher School of Music in Madrid.

He has collaborated with renowned soloists such as Maxim Vengerov, Leonidas Kavakos, Vadim Repin, Mischa Maisky, Gidon Kremer, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Gil Shaham, Lynn Harrell, Ferruccio Furlanetto, and Leo Nucci.

He has served as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic (2005–2008) and the Cagliari Opera House (Italy), and as Principal Guest Conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, the German State Philharmonic, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and the Armenian National

Philharmonic Orchestra.

Pehlivanian has performed at major international festivals, including Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Stars of the White Nights, Aix-en-Provence, the Bruckner Festival in Linz, and the Verdi Festival in Parma.

People’s Artist of Russia (1996), Laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1996)

Born in Moscow in 1949, Valery Polyansky graduated from the Moscow Conservatory as both a choral conductor (under Boris Kulikov) and an opera-symphony conductor (under Odissai Dimitriadi), later completing postgraduate studies with Gennady Rozhdestvensky (1977).

As a student, he founded the Moscow Conservatory Chamber Choir in 1971 In 1975, the ensemble won the Guido d’Arezzo International Competition, receiving the Gold Medal and the Golden Bell, awarded to the competition’s best choir.

Polyansky was named best conductor and received a special prize. From 1977 to 1980, he conducted at the Bolshoi Theatre of the USSR, assisting Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

In 1980, the Chamber Choir was transformed into the State Chamber Choir of the USSR Ministry of Culture, and since 1992, has formed the core of the State Academic Symphony Capella of Russia. Polyansky serves as its Artistic Director and Chief Conductor. He has toured with the ensemble in Germany, Greece, the UK, Japan, and the United States.

He is President of the Rachmaninoff Society and Chair of the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition.

Polyansky’s repertoire includes classical symphonic and choral works, concert performances of operas, revivals of forgotten compositions, and premieres of contemporary works—including Alfred Schnittke’s Gesualdo, Alexey Nikolaev’s The Last Days of Pushkin, and Alexander Tchaikovsky’s The Legend of Yelets.

He served as Principal Conductor of the Opera Evenings Festival in Gothenburg (Sweden).

Professor at the Moscow Conservatory and Head of the Department of Opera and Symphony Conducting.