JURY 2024

Prof. Wolfgang Zill has been teaching piano for more than 30 years at the Hanover University for Music, Drama and Media, where he is responsible for the subject didactics and methods of piano. Many of his students have won awards in famous piano competitions. Zill is active as pianist, lecturer and jury member in Germany and abroad.

The musician, lecturer and festival manager Prof. Markus Becker has received numerous awards for his CDs. Becker is regularly on stage at famous festivals and performs together with renowned orchestras. Besides his passion for chamber music, Becker is also famous as a virtuoso jazz pianist.

The Japanese pianist Prof. Yuka Imamine has received numerous awards at famous piano competitions. She performs as soloist together with renowned orchestras and regularly gives piano recitals. Yuka Imamine's work has been documented in various radio and TV productions. Her solo CD with works by Schubert and Ravel received particular attention. Besides lecturing at the University for Music and Theatre in Munich, Imamine is active as pianist, teacher and jury member in Europe and Asia.

The pianist Tim Ovens, originally from Flensburg, is a piano professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and also works as a visiting professor in Beijing. Tim Ovens performs internationally, primarily in Europe, Asia and South America, as well as at major music festivals. In addition to works by Robert Schumann and Claude Debussy, his artistic work focuses on contemporary music, with outstanding interpretations of the works of John Cage.

Prof. Dr Zuzana Niederdorfer has taught at music academies in Slovakia for more than 20 years and has been a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz in Austria since 2011. Zuzana Niederdorfer has won several prizes at national and international competitions, performed in solo concerts and worked with orchestras and chamber ensembles in Europe, China and the United States of America. She has made several CDs and recordings for BBC London and Czech-Slovak radio and television. Mrs Niederdorfer has given masterclasses in Italy, England, Germany, Austria, Finland, Iceland, the United States, China, Poland and many other countries. Her class includes numerous prize-winners of international competitions.