Jury members

Few artists have made an impact on so many others as Masahiro Kawakami. He is known as one of the premiere artists and scholars on the music of Nikolai Kapustin and Nikolai Medtner, per-former and educator at festivals both domestic and international, recording artist for NHK-FM radio and television programs in Japan and for almost 20 years, the teacher of Nobuyuki Tsujii, 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition winner.

Internationally acclaimed pianist and Yamaha Artist Nikita Fitenko has performed recitals and with orchestras in the former Soviet Union, Europe, Asia, and South and North America. He has appeared as a soloist with such orchestras as St. Petersburg Capella Symphony, Russian Cham-ber Philharmonic, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra of Moscow, St. Petersburg State Conservato-ry Orchestra, State Hermitage Orchestra, Slovak National Philharmonic, Corvallis Symphony Orchestra, Lewisville Symphony, Rapides Symphony, and Northwestern Symphony Orchestra among others.

Ms. Kei Itoh is the first Japanese to have ever won the first prize at the 1983 Munich International Piano Competition. She began studies on the piano from childhood under Ms. Kazuko Ariga. Graduating in 1977 from Tokyo´s renowned Toho Gakuen High School, she pursued her further studies in Europe at Salzburg´s Mozarteum Conservatory and under Hans Leygraf at the Hannover Conservatory. Her Munich debut with the Bayerische Staatsoper Orchestra under the baton of Wolfgang Sawallisch led to subsequent engagements in Europe with the Frankfurter Rundfunk Orchestra, Südwestfunk Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra and Warsaw Philharmonic, and Ms. Itoh now performs regularly in Europe with orchestras such as the Czech Philharmonic, as well as with all the major Japanese orchestras: NHK Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra etc.

Japanese Pianist Nobuhito Nakai graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and finished graduate school also, after that finished meisterclass at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich on a scholarship of DAAD, He studied with Prof.Ueda, Prof. Oppitz, Prof.Kaemmerling. Nakai is prize-winner at many competitions, Music Competition of Japan, Johannes Brahms International Music Competition, International Piano Competition 'Citta di Senigallia', G. B. Viotti International Music Competition in Vercelli, and M.Dranoff International Two Piano Competition (U.S.A.) with his wife Miwako Takeda.

Japanese pianist Minoru Nojima made his concert debut with the NHK Symphony Orchestra at the age of ten. He later attended the Toho School of Music in Tokyo, and while still a student, performed with both the Tokyo Philharmonic and Japan Philharmonic Orchestras. In 1966, Minoru Nojima was invited to the Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory by the Soviet Cultural Affairs Agency to study under renowned pianist Lev Oborin. During this time he gave recitals in various cities, including Moscow and Leningrad. In 1969, he won second prize at the Third Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and the following year made his Carnegie Hall debut.