INTERNATIONAL JURY MEMBERS
DR. ANTHONY TAM | PIANIST
Anthony Tam, pianist, examiner, competition juror, pedagogue, clinician holds the Fellowship Diploma in Piano Performance from the National College of Music, London and the Fellowship Diploma in Piano Teaching from the Victoria College of Music, London. At the same time, he is also the holder of the piano performance diplomas from the Australian Music Examinations Board and the University of West London. He is appointed as a member of the Academical Board of the National College of Music and becomes the first non-British to be chosen to join as a member in the College’s history of more than 120 years. He is also the first Chinese to be appointed as a music examiner for both the National College of Music and the Victoria College of Music. In 2012, he was further appointed as a senior examiner for the National College of Music, London and will be responsible for further administration of the College. He was the past examiner of the British Columbia Conservatory of Music, Canada. In 2017, he joins as a music examiner for the Con Brio Examination Board. He is the first and only one worldwide to hold the position as a music examiner for four different examination boards at the same time. He has wide experience in assessing piano examination candidates. On top of being as a music examiner, he is appointed by National College of Music to be the piano duet examination syllabus coordinator and from 2014, he was also responsible for coordinating and rewriting the piano syllabus. He is a member of the American Liszt Society and through some contribution, he has earned the title as a ‘Lisztian”. He is also a member in good standing of the Australian Guild of Music and Speech. He is an associate member of the European Piano Teachers Association. In 2018, he is named as the Hong Kong President of the World Piano Teachers Association. He is also invited to join as the juror in piano competition and composition competition organised by the World Piano Teachers Association.
Born, raised and totally trained in Hong Kong, he started to take up piano lessons when he was at the age of 5. He appeared on television one year later performing a whole programme of Beethoven. His teachers included Madam Kam-Mui Deng and Madam Wo-Ping Law who were famous pedagogues in Hong Kong. He also studied briefly with Mr. Colin Kingsley. He has played in masterclasses given by the American pianist Malcolm Frager and the great Shura Cherkassky. Under the full recommendation from Madam Law, he has got a chance to learn under Cherkassky for some time.
He is a pianist, teacher, juror and clinician and has been on the jury of some local and international competitions. He was the Jury Chairman of the Steinway PIano Competition in 2014 and was the President of Jury of the Mozart International Piano Competition. He has also judged the World Piano Pedagogy Conference Competition in USA and last year, he was the President of Jury of the Euterpe Competition in Italy and in 2018, he has judged an international piano competition in Venice organised by the Debussy Society. This year, he will judge the Merci Maestro Competition in Belgium. He is also the Artistic Director of the Neapolitan Masters Competition in Asia. He has concertised in many countries including UK, Canada, USA and some countries in Europe.
He has also taught in many countries. He is a sought-after teacher in many Asian countries and is a teacher with many award-winning students. He has given lectures, masterclasses, workshops for different organisers on different occasions. He is keen on presenting teacher training programmes for music teachers worldwide. Years ago, he was appointed as a representative of the Victoria Piano Summer School in Canada. In 2015, he was appointed as the Director of International Studies (Pedagogy and Masterclasses) of the Ultimate Music Theory of Canada. UMT will issue a series called “Masterclasses by Anthony Tam’ in the near future.
He is also the Hong Kong Director of the Cambodia Support Group (Canada) which promotes music education in Cambodia. He travels to Cambodia on a regular basis to give intensive courses to teachers and students.
Right now, he is on the way to create a new piano summer school programme in the city of Kimberley, Canada in cooperation with the Canadian Brahms specialist Arne Sahlen. He is now the Artistic Director of the PianoFocus Summer Camp in Canada.
He is also a column writer in music education and music learning for some child-related publications and is interviewed widely on different occasions by the press.
He is also a writer writing on subjects about piano education in different magazines. He wrote a book on piano learning and was published in 2020.
BULENT EVCIL | FLUTIST
Bülent Evcil is an exceptional flutist who is devoted not only to his craft but also to the creation of programs featuring the traditional Turkish repertoire.
He started his flute education at the MSU State Conservatory in 1980 in Turkey and continued in the Brussels Royal Conservatory and Heidelberg-Mannheim School of Music. In 1992 he had an opportunity to be a student of Sir James Galway. He described Evcil as ‘one of the best flutists of his generation.’
Between 2000-2005 he worked as a flute group conductor in Istanbul State Opera and Ballet. Currently, he is a flute group chief at the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and a solo flutist at the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra. Evcil, also took part in many international orchestras such as Italian International Symphony Orchestra, Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra and Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic Orchestra under the conductor of Lorin Maazel as a solo flutist and 1st flutist.
Evcil is internationally-acclaimed for his expressive skills, had been invited as a guest artist, and gave many solo festivals worldwide. Some of the most prestigious festivals are the Italian International Flute Festival, Flautomania Teatro Alla Scala in Milano, Italy, Slovenian international flute Festival, Slovenia, French flute festival in Nice and Serbian International Flute festival Belgrade, Serbia. Pristine flute festival, Kosovo, NFA flute conventions Head Liner concerts in San Diego and New York, America. He also conducted many masterclasses worldwide.
Evcil has significant contributions to expand the popularity of his instrument, Flute, and has the ambition to represent his music and his country, Turkey, at the international music arena. He is awarded by” Classical Music Magazine ANDANTE” The Best woodwind player of 2010 in Turkey.
As a prodigious recording artist, and he has three main recordings. His first CD named “TANGO TIME” came out by KALAN MUSIC in Turkey, His second CD called “Middle Eastern Miniatures” and the third one was recorded in 2015 with a world-famous accompanist Phillip Moll and named as “The Flute Virtuoso.”
NURHAN ARMAN | CONDUCTOR
Nurhan Arman opens his 2023-2024 guest-conducting season with a fourth return to Austria's Arpeggione Kammerorchester, a return to Filarmonica Italiana and Festival Musica & Musica in Italy with the Naonis & Donatello Ensemble.
During the 2022-2023 season Nurhan Arman continued as Music Director of Sinfonia Toronto and guest conducted orchestras in Canada, Italy, Germany, Greece and Georgia. He was on the podium of Harzer Sinfoniker, Thessaloniki Symphony, Orchestre classique de Montréal, Georgian Sinfonietta, Naonis & Donatello Ensemble and the Orchestra Sinfonica del Teatro Goldoni. His more recent engagements include a four-concert tour in Italy with Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali, Festival Udine Castello with the Naonis & Donatello Ensemble, the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, and return engagements with Kammerorchester Arpeggione (Austria) and the San Remo Philharmonic Orchestra (Italy). In the last four seasons he has led Sinfonia Toronto in a South American tour with concerts in Peru, Argentina and Uruguay as well as a ten-concert tour in China.
Maestro Arman has brought capacity crowds to their feet on three continents. He has appeared in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Hungary, Portugal, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Turkey, Armenia, South Korea, Mexico and throughout the United States and Canada.
Critics on both sides of the Atlantic have been unanimous in their praise. Pravda hailed Maestro Arman as a "fascinating and striking musical personality," while the Broadcast Review in Prague reported "a spirited and nobly rounded performance."
Born to Armenian parents in Istanbul, he played his first violin recital at the age of 13. After arriving in the United States on a Disney Foundation scholarship, he concertized from coast to coast, appearing in major US cities as well as at prestigious music festivals in Tanglewood, Spoleto, New York and Florida. After several seasons of leading US orchestras as concertmaster, he began a conducting career that has taken him all over the world.
In 1982 Nurhan Arman moved to Canada to accept the post of Music Director of the North Bay Symphony and the Northern Music Festival. In 1987 he was named Music Director of Symphony New Brunswick which he swiftly built into a major regional resource. In March of 1993 Maestro Arman was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Yerevan Symphony in Armenia. In 1998 Maestro Arman founded Sinfonia Toronto, now considered one of Canada’s finest chamber orchestras.
Maestro Arman has served as an adjudicator on many prominent panels, including the International Fitelberg Conducting Competition in Poland, the Canada Council Conducting Competition and the Heinz Unger Competition. He has taught conducting at New York's Brockport Festival, at the Florida Festival, and in Canada at the Orford Arts Centre, Northern Music Festival as well as the Royal Conservatory of Music.
Maestro Arman has recorded for CBC Radio, PBS, Radio Moscow, Polish Broadcasting, Czech Radio, Korean Broadcasting, Lithuanian TV, Armenian Radio and TV. His recording ‘Flanders Fields’ CD with Sinfonia Toronto has won Canada’s Juno award.
Maestro Arman’s career has taken him around the world, guest-conducting orchestras including the Moscow Philharmonic, State Hermitage Orchestra St. Petersburg, Volgograd Symphony, Belgrade Philharmonic, Filarmonica Italiana, Orchestra Pomeriggi Musicali, Florence Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra da Camera Milano Classica, Orchestra Sinfonica di San Remo, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Orchestra Sinfonica Giacchino Rossini, Orchestra Sinfonico di Lecce, Chamber Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico, Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra Leopoldinum, Witold Lutoslawsky Chamber Philharmonic, Kharkov Philharmonic, Vojvodina Symphony, Sergipe Philharmonic of Brazil, Nordbohmische Philharmonie Teplice, Deutsches Kammerorchester Frankfurt, Radomska Orkiestra Kameralna, Bellas Artes Chamber Orchestra of Mexico City, Orchestra Extremadura (Spain), Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, Hungarian Philharmonic, Lithuanian Philharmonic, l'Orchestre Regional d'Ile de France, Bohemian Festival Orchestra, Pilsen Radio Symphony, Silesian State Philharmonic, Denver Chamber Orchestra, Armenian Philharmonic, Bucharest Philharmonic, Brasov Philharmonic, Filarmonica Moldova, Filarmonica Sibiu, Slovak (Kosice) Philharmonic, Orquestra Clássica da Madeira, Orquesta da Camaro Amazonas of Brazil, Deutsches Kammerorchester on tour at the Ljubljana Summer Music Festival, Karlsbad Symphony, Rivne Chamber Orchestra, Grand Orchestre de l'Harmonie (Belgium), Pusan Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, KitchenerWaterloo Symphony, Orchestra London, Saskatoon Symphony and many others.
DR. EDITH WIDAYANI | PIANIST & CHAMBER MUSICIAN
Hailed as one of the most accomplished young pianists in her home country of Indonesia, Dr. Edith Widayani has established herself as performing solo artist, chamber musician, and music educator, with appearances in North, Central, and South Americas, Europe, and Asia.
She launched her second album, “Memories,” this past November, highlighting how classical music can bring people together through stories and experiences. Currently the Artistic Program Director of Indonesia International Piano Competition and the Brand Ambassador to The Grand Signature Piano, Edith also hosted an Online Piano Workshop partnering with "Let The Music Begin!" and Amadeus Enterprise, already gathering more than 200 participants from all across Indonesia through various age groups and levels. Edith is also the current President of the World Piano Teachers Association - Indonesia.
Edith earned her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Performance and Literature with double minors in Chamber Music/Collaborative Piano and Music Theory from the Eastman School of Music - the first Indonesian to earn a doctorate from Eastman. She graduated as a Pi Kappa Lambda and awarded the prestigious Henry Cobos Endowed Piano Prize for demonstrating excellence in piano performance.
She also holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, magna cum laude, from Texas Christian University School of Music and a Master of Music in Piano Performance and Literature from Eastman School of Music. Her teachers include Mrs. Edmay Solaiman, Mrs. Aisha Pletscher, Dr. Johannes S. Nugroho, Prof. Ling Yuan, Dr. Tamás Ungár, and most recently, Prof. Barry Snyder.
As laureate of both solo and chamber music competitions, including the 1st Prize Winner at Indonesia International Piano Competition, the 1st Prize and Best Instrumentalist Award at the Concurso de Música Cámara Ecoparque Trasmiera in Arnuero, Spain, 1st Prize Winners in the 2014 Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition in New York City, 2013 Jakarta International Open Piano Competition, and Ananda Sukarlan Award 2010, Edith has also received Award of Achievement in International Forum given by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia.
Committed to music education as a young on-demand pedagogue, Edith has taught intensively at Eastman, as assistant to Prof. Snyder for piano, instructor for keyboard literature, and teaching assistant in musicology and theory departments. In the past few years she did both performances and residencies at the Escuela de Música Victoriano López in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and at the Escuela Superior de Música, Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango in Mexico. She also performed and gave masterclasses as a guest artist in Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, TX in 2016 and at 2013 Bogotá International Piano Festival in Colombia.
Edith is also a graduate of the 2019 cohort of The Global Leaders Program, focusing on transforming lives around the world through music, cultural agency, social entrepreneurship, community development and teaching artistry.
DR. JUI-SHENG LI | PIANIST
The New York Concert Review praised Taiwanese pianist Jui-Sheng Li as “[a] musician of integrity and depth…One looks forward to hearing more from this young artist.”
In recent years, Jui-Sheng has been performing across Asia, Europe, and North America, including major venues like Carnegie Hall in New York and Konzerthaus Blaibach in Germany. He has also been invited to perform at the Asia Pacific Saxophone Academy, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Brevard Music Center, the Castleman Quartet Program, the Eastern Music Festival, the Fontainebleau Schools of Music and Fine Arts, the International Music Workshop and Festival, the International Summer Academy of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, the Musical Chairs Chamber Music Festival, the New York University Summer Piano Intensive, the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival, and the Red Rocks Winter Chamber Music Festival.
Jui-Sheng has been awarded numerous prizes and honours, including the 2nd Mu-Te Shih German Lieder Competition (Taiwan), several editions of the Music Teachers National Association's competitions (U.S.A.), the Wyoming Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition (U.S.A.), the Rondo Young Artist Competition (U.S.A.), the Vancouver International Music Competition (Canada), the International Piano Island Competition (Singapore), the King's Peak International Music Competition (U.S.A.), and others.
Presently, Jui-Sheng is an interim Instructor of Piano and Theory at Northwestern Polytechnic (formerly Grande Prairie Regional College) in Alberta and a musician of the
Lincoln Center Stage’s Resident Piano Quartet in New York. Before teaching at the NWP, he has taught at McGill University, the University of Wyoming, the Global Youth Leaders Orchestra and the Music InsideOut in Toronto, and the Piano Vertu Academy in Montréal.
He holds a Doctor of Music degree and an Artist Diploma from McGill University, a Master of Music degree from the University of Wyoming, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the National Taiwan Normal University. During his studies, Jui-Sheng was the recipient of the Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Grant, the Graduate Fellowship, and International Research and Travel Awards from McGill University, the Performing Arts Scholarship from Tsung Cho-Chang Education Foundation, the Marmerstein Memorial Scholarship in Piano Performance from the Jewish Community Foundation of Montréal, and others. His teachers have included Kyoko Hashimoto, Roe-Min Kok (research), Chi-Chen Wu, Yi-Chun Cheng, and I-An Chen.
DR. SAMUEL DECAPRIO | CELLIST & CHAMBER MUSICIAN
Currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at The Juilliard School, cellist Samuel DeCaprio is quickly establishing himself as one of today's most creative artists and collaborators. Winner of the 2018 Aldo Parisot Prize from the Yale School of Music, awarded to "gifted cellists who show promise for concert careers," he has won numerous top prizes including the Arlington, Eastern Connecticut Symphony, National Federation of Music Clubs, Oneppo Chamber Music, William C. Byrd, and Windham Arts Council Young Artist competitions, as well as the prestigious Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Mr. DeCaprio was also a winner of the Wilmington Music Festival’s 2019-2020 Emerging Artist Auditions and is currently on the Center for Musical Excellence Artist roster.
Recent highlights include his New York City debut on Grazyna Bacewicz's Cello Concerto No. 2 with The Juilliard Orchestra under conductor David Robertson in Alice Tully Hall, as well as appearances at IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Kneisel Hall, and Lake George music festivals. A passionate chamber musician, he has collaborated with luminaries such as Atar Arad, Paul Biss, Brett Dean, Steven Doane, Vladimir Feltsman, Joseph Lin, and Daniel Phillips, and can be heard on recordings for ECM Records and MSR Classics.
Mr. DeCaprio holds degrees from the University of Connecticut (Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude), Eastman School of Music (Master of Music), Mannes School of Music (Professional Studies Diploma), and Yale School of Music (Master of Musical Arts). His teachers include Joel Krosnick, Aldo Parisot, Marcy Rosen, Steven Doane, and Peter Wiley. He performs on a 1714 Claude Pierray cello on generous loan from The Juilliard School.
ANNAMARIA POPESCU | MEZZO SOPRANO
Following her education at McGill University, the Academy of Vocal Arts and the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, Annamaria Popescu embarked on a distinguished career with roles including Olga in Eugene Onegin and Suzuki in Madame Butterfly throughout Europe and North America. Most notably, she is the Canadian singer who has sung most often at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan with over 100 performances having made her debut in Les Troyens by Berlioz. Her recording of the complete songs of Rachmaninoff with pianist Howard Shelley was followed by rave reviews. Other highlights include concert repertoire in Europe and Asia with the London Symphony Orchestra to the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, in repertoire ranging from works by Sir Michael Tippett's Mask of Time to Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle. She has also worked extensively on the recital stage with Michael McMahon and Esther Gonthier. Since 2010, Annamaria Popescu has been lecturing at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University as associate professor of voice and Italian diction as well as at the Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique de Montréal as professor of lyric diction since 2021.
KARL HIRZER | CONDUCTOR & COMPOSER
The gifted young Canadian conductor Karl Hirzer can’t remember a time when he didn’t want to be a musician. Karl grew up in Vancouver, BC, in a household filled with music. His parents had Glenn Gould and Louis Armstrong on the CD player; he and his mother sang along with Irish folk songs on the radio (and he’d let her know if she hit a wrong note). He was “composing” at the family’s upright piano at age four. Formal piano lessons began at six. At twelve he started playing guitar in heavy metal bands and dreamed of becoming a rock star, while simultaneously perfecting Chopin Études and Beethoven Sonatas. He earned his ARCT at seventeen.
Today he can be found on the podium internationally, having led orchestras from Vancouver to Boston, from the Gstaad Festival to educational programs in Warsaw. He is the 2022 recipient of the Heinz Unger Award, presented biennially by the Ontario Arts Council to Canada’s most promising emerging conductor, and in 2023 completed a seven-year tenure as Associate Conductor with the Calgary Philharmonic.
Karl was a prodigious pianist and studied to become a soloist at the University of Victoria before getting his master’s at McGill University in Montreal. He got his first taste of conducting an orchestra during his undergrad and basked in the wondrous experience of sharing his musical ideas with a big band of musicians and an audience, through simple gestures. Imagine - hundreds of people in the concert hall, each having a unique experience of a shared moment, something communal and intimate at the same time, forging a personal relationship with a composer who may be long dead - or sitting in the front row. He believes music plays an essential role in our lives.It touches us viscerally, even though we can’t really explain why or how.
Karl is especially committed to exploring music by living composers and believes that modern music defines what the classical idiom is today. He’s also heavily invested in bringing music to young audiences, helping them discover a sound world that’s completely captivating. His contributions to the arts, community and education were recognized with his inclusion in Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 under 40 list for 2022. He continues to perform as an instrumentalist and also composes his own music, blending genres while mixing acoustic and electronic instruments. Heads up - his first album of original material will be released in fall of 2023.
CHRISTOPHER GODDARD | COMPOSER
Christopher Goddard is a Canadian composer, pianist, and music researcher.
As acomposer, he has collaborated with NYO Canada, Esprit Orchestra, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Quatuor Molinari, Continuum, Ensemble Paramirabo, l’Orchestre de la Francophonie, andPlay duo, No Exit New Music Ensemble, NOISE- BRIDGE, and others. Recent commissions have come from the Lucerne Festival, the Royal Conservatory/Koerner Hall for the 21C Festival and the City of Reutlingen. His work has been recognized by the MacDowell Foundation, the Graham Sommer Competition for Young Composers, the Prix Collégien de Musique Contemporaine, the SOCAN Young Composer Awards, and the Robert Avalon Competition for Young Composers. He was recently named as the 2022 protégé of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, a mentorship program in collaboration with GGPAA laureate Alexina Louie. The Canadian League of Composers presented him with the 2015 Friends of Canadian Music Award to share with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, who would later select him as their RBC Foundation Emerging Composer-in-Residence. The resulting work received its premiere in Lisbon and was broadcast on CBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 3. As a performer and advocate of contemporary music, Christopher Goddard has presented dozens of premieres by his colleagues, appearing with new music groups such as Ensemble Moto Perpetuo, Columbia Composers, Penn Composers Guild, the Wet Ink Ensemble, and others. He has participated in the Samos Young Artist Festival, the Avant Music Festival in New York and was a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy. As a music researcher focused on 20 th and 21 st century music, he has presented at regional, national, and international conferences and has been published in Music Theory Online.