Jury

A Polish pianist of Bulgarian origin. She graduated with distinction in piano performance in 1973 from the State Higher School of Music in Gdańsk (now the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music), studying under Zbigniew Śliwiński. She completed postgraduate studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna in the class of Alexander Jenner. She is a laureate of numerous national and international competitions, including the Alessandro Casagrande International Piano Competition in Terni, Italy (1975). In the same year, she received a distinction at the 9th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Long associated with music education, she is currently a professor of piano at the Academies of Music in Gdańsk and Bydgoszcz. She gives masterclasses in Poland and abroad, conducts seminars for piano teachers, and leads open lessons and consultations. Her students have won top prizes at piano competitions in Poland and internationally. Among them is Rafał Blechacz, the winner of the 15th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in October 2005. She serves as a jury member at national and international competitions. Other students include: Ewa Jasińska, Paweł Rydeł, Ireneusz Manuszewski, Piotr Kępiński, Marek Ruszczyński, Aleksandra Mozgiel, Agata Nowakowska, Julia Stetkiewicz, Katarzyna Borek, Elżbieta Pasierowska, Krzysztof Herdzin, Agnieszka Chełkowska, Karolina Nadolska, Michio Nishihara Toro, and Takayuki Hirata. She performs extensively in Poland and abroad. Her repertoire spans works from the Baroque to the 20th century, with particular emphasis on the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy, and Bartók. She has also given world premieres of contemporary Polish music. Chamber music occupies an important place in her artistic activity. The artist is a juror at music competitions in Poland and worldwide. In 2015, she served as Chair of the Jury of the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition. She is a co-founder of the Gdańsk Society of Music Lovers (1996) and the International Chamber Music Festival Musica nos unit. For her social and artistic activities, she has been awarded the “Prince Mestwin Medal” by the Gdańsk City Council, the Medal of the National Education Commission (2004), the “Gloria Artis” Medal for Merit to Culture (2005), and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

A concert pianist, chamber musician, and pedagogue. Habilitated Doctor of Musical Arts, Associate Professor at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. She belongs to the leading group of Polish pianists. For over twenty years she has pursued an intensive artistic career, performing symphonic concerts as well as solo and chamber recitals in Poland and abroad. She also gives numerous masterclasses in Poland and internationally and serves on juries of national and international piano competitions (including the 17th International Chopin Piano Competition in Asia and the Arthur Rubinstein in Memoriam International Competition for Young Pianists). She has appeared at many prestigious festivals and has performed, among others, in Austria, Argentina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Moldova, Germany, Norway, Russia, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland, Sweden, Ukraine, the USA, and Italy. In 1996 she graduated with distinction from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where she studied piano under Professor Andrzej Jasiński, and after her studies she served for six years as his assistant. She currently holds the position of Associate Professor at her alma mater. In addition to her work at the Academy, since 2014 Beata Bilińska has taught a piano class at the M. Karłowicz State Music School of the 1st and 2nd degree in Katowice, and since 2017 at the F. Chopin Comprehensive Music School of the 1st and 2nd degree in Bytom; her students have since won more than twenty top prizes at national and international piano competitions. She is a laureate of numerous national and international piano competitions and scholarships, including those of the Fryderyk Chopin Society in Warsaw, the Ministry of Culture and Art, and the Marshal’s Office of the Silesian Voivodeship, for outstanding achievements in the field of culture. She has collaborated with most Polish conductors as well as with renowned foreign maestros, including Massimiliano Caldi, Antal Matyas, Wolfgang Michel, Jiří Mikula, Dainius Pavilionis, Kriss Russmann, Brian Schembri, Christian Schumann, Lothar Seyfarth, Eugene Tzigane, and Takao Ukigaya. She has taken part in chamber music projects, repeatedly performing with the Silesian Quartet and the Kraków Wind Quintet, as well as with instrumentalists such as Jakub Jakowicz, Konstanty Andrzej Kulka, Rafał Kwiatkowski, Patrycja Piekutowska, Agata Szymczewska, and Marcin Zdunik. In 2003 she made her debut at Carnegie Hall, performing in the main hall, the Isaac Stern Auditorium, in New York. She was the first Polish pianist to perform Krzysztof Penderecki’s piano concerto Resurrection, and in 2011 she gave the world premiere of Wojciech Kilar’s Second Piano Concerto. Her discography includes twelve CD albums featuring recordings of music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Fryderyk Chopin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Modest Mussorgsky, Sergei Prokofiev, violin and piano works by 20th-century Polish composers, chamber works by W. A. Mozart, Francis Poulenc, Aleksander Tansman, and Mikołaj Górecki, as well as Penderecki’s Piano Concerto Resurrection (2005) and Kilar’s Second Piano Concerto (2014). Beata Bilińska has been nominated twice for the Polityka Passport Award and five times for the Fryderyk Award (2003, 2004, 2013, 2015, 2018), receiving the Fryderyk statuette in 2015 for her recording of Wojciech Kilar’s Second Piano Concerto (AUKSO / Moś / 2014). For her other recordings she has received numerous phonographic awards, including the Pizzicato Supersonic Award (twice) in Luxembourg, the Joker Award from the Belgian magazine Les Crescendo, the Scherzo Award in Madrid, the Musica Award in Rome, and the highly prestigious MIDEM Classical Award 2008.

He was born in 1987 in Toruń. In 2011 he graduated with distinction from the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, where he studied piano in the class of Professor Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, and subsequently became an assistant at the Academy. In 2017 he obtained a PhD in Musical Arts, and since 2019 he has held the position of university professor. He has refined his skills at masterclasses led by, among others, Bernard Ringeissen, Ewa Pobłocka, Jacques Rouvier, Dang Thai Son, Mikhail Voskresensky, and Nelson Goerner. Paweł Wakarecy is a laureate of numerous national and international piano competitions for children and young people. He received special prizes at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski International Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz (2007) and was a finalist of the International Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Darmstadt (2009). At the 16th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2010) he received a distinction as well as a special prize for the highest-rated Polish participant. In 2010, as part of the celebrations of the Chopin Year, Paweł Wakarecy gave more than fifty concerts in Poland and abroad, including performances in Germany, Sweden, Russia, Bulgaria, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom, Norway, China, Japan, Korea, Denmark, Egypt, Chile, and Colombia. In 2012 he toured Ukraine with the Polish Radio Amadeus Chamber Orchestra and in the same year gave recitals in Moscow and London. In the years 2013–2014 he performed at venues associated with Chopin’s life, including Chopin festivals in Valldemossa (Majorca) and Nohant (France), as well as in the Schubert Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus. He has played in prestigious concert halls such as Cadogan Hall and Westminster Cathedral Hall in London, the Salle Cortot in Paris, Oji Hall in Tokyo, the Seoul Arts Center, Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, and the Great Hall of the Kyiv Conservatory. The artist has collaborated with many ensembles, including the National Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish Radio Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice (NOSPR), the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus Orchestra, the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Sinfonia Baltica, Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra, and the majority of Polish philharmonic orchestras. He has performed under the baton of such conductors as Agnieszka Duczmal, Antoni Wit, Łukasz Borowicz, Wojciech Michniewski, Zygmunt Rychert, Jerzy Salwarowski, Marek Moś, Adam Sztaba, Mitsuyoshi Oikawa, Bar Avni, and Daniel Smith. As a chamber musician, he performs in the piano duo Wakarecy Piano Duo with his wife Aleksandra and collaborates with outstanding young Polish musicians. Music critic John Allison, commenting on the album containing selected recordings from the Warsaw Chopin Competition released in 2011 by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, wrote: “As the only Polish finalist of the 16th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, Paweł Wakarecy […] demonstrated his exceptional quality. The Toruń-born artist clearly showed a natural, instinctive grasp of almost everything he undertook musically, often capturing the subtle, nostalgic quality that Poles call ‘uczucie żalu’. Yet, although the artist’s Polish roots could be sensed in his interpretations, he never gave the impression of taking anything in the music for granted. Most of his performances were the result of searching and an individual approach. Above all, Wakarecy’s playing convinced through the depth of his touch, testifying to a very physical connection with the instrument.”

Despite her young age, she has established herself as one of the leading pianists of Inner Mongolia in China. She attracted public attention at the age of seven when she won a special prize at the National Piano Competition in China, and since then has regularly given piano concerts and recitals in concert halls throughout China. She studied with Jolío Largachy and Gabriel Rosenberg in Cologne and Nuremberg, and during her studies she was awarded a DAAD scholarship. Xin Wang has received numerous prizes and distinctions, including at piano competitions in Luganiano and Bettona in Italy, as well as many others. She is regularly invited to perform in many renowned concert halls in Europe and Asia, such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Busan Cultural Center, the Municipal Theatre in Karlovy Vary, the Croatian Music Institute in Zagreb, the Witold Lutosławski Chamber Philharmonic in Poland, Qintai Concert Hall in Wuhan, Henan Art Center in Zhengzhou, the Concert Hall in Ningbo, the Poly Grand Theatre in Hohhot, Staatstheater Lippstadt, Stadthalle Erkelenz, Theater Kerkrade, Schloss Elmau, and many others. As a soloist she has performed with many distinguished orchestras, including the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Sinfonia Rotterdam, Zagreb Soloists, Fondazione Orchestra Regionale delle Marche, Busan Festival Orchestra, the Łomża Philharmonic, Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, Kammerphilharmonie St. Petersburg, and Berliner Camerata, under the baton of eminent conductors such as Kazem Abdullah, Christopher Ward, Conrad van Alphen, Fuad Ibrahimov, Marek Štilić, Jan Miłosz Zarzycki, James P. Liu, Juri Gilbo, Eduardo Strausser, and many others. She is a regular guest at international festivals including the Nancyphonies Festival in Nancy, Festival van Zeeuwsch-Vlaanderen in the Netherlands, the International Puplinge Classique Festival in Geneva, the Piano Duo Festival in Amsterdam, Kotor Art International Festival in Montenegro, WestfalenClassics, Eifel Musicale, the Lanzhou International Piano Festival in China, Madeira Piano Fest in Portugal, the Scriabin Piano Festival in Grosseto, Italy, “Friday Nights with Yury Revich” in Vienna, the Deià International Music Festival in Spain, and many others. Xin Wang is the founder and artistic director of the International Piano Festival in Geilenkirchen, Germany, and the chair of the juries of the Euregio Piano Award in Germany and the Globe the World International Piano Competition in China. She is frequently invited to serve as a juror at numerous international piano competitions, including the Deutscher Pianistenpreis in Frankfurt, the UNISA International Piano Competition in South Africa, the International Piano Competition for Young Musicians in Enschede, the Chopin Competition in Rome, the Isidor Bajić Piano Memorial Competition in Novi Sad, Serbia, Neue Sterne in Wernigerode, Germany, the Mauro Paolo Monopoli Prize in Barletta, Italy, the International Amadeus Piano Competition in Lazise, the Campillos International Piano Competition, and many others. Since 2012 she has taught as a guest professor at various music universities in China and has given numerous masterclasses in China and Germany together with distinguished pedagogues from leading European music academies. Since 2024 she has been a professor of chamber piano at the China Conservatory in Beijing, and her students are laureates of many international piano competitions in Asia and Europe and are regularly invited to participate in major competitions such as Hamamatsu, Leeds, Dublin, Busoni, and Hong Kong.

is an Austrian-Swiss pianist, a multi-prize winner of the 2010 International Chopin Piano Competition, conductor, composer, public speaker, and co-founder of two educational platforms for music: Appassio and Appassimo. He started his musical adventure on the violin at the age of 4. After his talent for the piano was accidentally discovered by a piano teacher from Linz, Wunder gave up the violin and switched to the piano at the age of 14. He began intensive piano studies at the Music Conservatory in Linz under Prof. Horst Mattheus, and only a few months later, he won his first youth competition (VII Concorso Internazionale di Musica, Cortemilia). Soon after, he won several other competitions, including the 63rd Steinway Piano Competition in Hamburg. About one year after switching to the piano, he made his debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus. Two years later, he already played in concert some of the most demanding piano works, including all of Liszt’s Transcendental Études. He continued his piano studies at the University of Music in Vienna, and in order to evolve artistically, he travelled throughout Europe to get private tuition from selected great old-school pianists as often as possible, first and foremost from Idil Biret. In 2008, he started his collaboration with the Polish pianist and winner of the 1955 Chopin Competition, Adam Harasiewicz. One year later, he decided to take part in a piano competition for the very last time. The 2010 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw brought uproar, recognition, the 2nd Prize, a few special prizes, and many devoted listeners around the world who saw in him the real winner of the competition. Next to playing concerts and touring, he undertook conducting studies in Krakow to widen his musical horizons. He obtained his diploma at the end of 2012, but it wasn’t until 2019 that he started to appear in concerts in a double role as pianist and conductor, conducting piano concertos as well as symphonic repertoire. He recorded several albums for Deutsche Grammophon and has performed in hundreds of concert venues in over 40 countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, playing in such prestigious halls as the Musikverein Vienna, Carnegie Hall (NYC), Berlin Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (Paris), Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Tonhalle Zurich, Rudolfinum (Prague), Moscow Conservatory, Mariinsky Theatre (St. Petersburg), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), LOTTE Concert Hall in Seoul, National Concert Hall in Taipei, and Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile. In 2017, he launched Appassio.com—a freelance remote teaching platform for music and arts. Since 2018, alongside playing concerts, he has also been appearing as a public speaker focusing on the importance of human creativity and music education in the world of AI and singularity. He has given speeches at events such as the United Nations’ IGF, SDG Lab at the Davos World Economic Forum, and the biggest education summit ASU+GSV in San Diego, and has delivered a TEDx Talk. In 2020, he co-founded his second education platform, Appassimo.com, created for music institutions. In 2025, he released MusicalDNA.me—an innovative music AI tool developed together with ETH Zurich and the Swiss Data Science Center. Ingolf Wunder shares his time between playing concerts, advocating for music and arts, and developing technologically and scientifically advanced music tools, always with the same goal: the promotion of artistic education and improving musical perception quality in younger generations. Privately, he is an admirer of Romanticism and Impressionism in music and fine arts. He has a keen interest in technology, neuroscience, and quantum mechanics.