Carlos Cebro

URUGUAY / FRANCE
Carlos Cebro, born in Montevideo, studied with Eliane Richepin and completed his studies in Paris with Vlado Perlemuter, from whom he inherited his music and grand piano. Winner of many international competition prizes, he has performed worldwide with chamber music ensembles and orchestras under the baton of conductors such as Jacques Bodmer, Gustav König, Laszlo Halasz or Antonio Vito. He has been a piano accompanist for renowned singers, such as Arleen Auger, Rita Streich, or George London, among others, at the Salzburg Festival, while working at the Mozarteum for a long period of time. He has served as a jury member in several international piano competitions and has taught master classes in Europe, Asia, and America. He has also performed in several recordings.
Carlos Cebro is the President of the Eliane Richepin Association in Montevideo (Uruguay), Artistic Director and President of the Jury at the Maria Canals International Music Competition in Barcelona as well as President of the Jury at the Brest (France) International Piano Competition. He has been made Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture of the French Government.

Yukiko Akagi

JAPAN

Pianist Yukiko Akagi earned her Bachelor of Music degree at Toho College of Music in Tokyo under Ms. Nobuko Amada, her Master of Music Degree at Mannes College of Music under Mr. Jerome Rose and her Professional Studies Certificate at Manhattan School of Music under Mr. Solomon Mikowsky. Highlights among her honours and awards include the Second prize at Maria Canals International Music Competition in Barcelona, and First prize at Jose Roca International Piano Competition in Valencia, among many others. She made her debut in New York’s Carnegie Hall, highly praised by the critics. Since then her career has blossomed throughout the United States, performing in some of its most important venues. Her performances have been recorded and broadcasted by New York’s WQXR, CVTV, or Chicago’s WFMT. Yukiko Akagi has regularly been invited to perform in Spain, appearing in some of the country’s most important venues, such as Auditorio Nacional de España, Palau de la Música Catalana and Palau de la Música de Valencia, to name a few. In addition to having recorded for the Spanish National Television and Radio, she has been a guest soloist with some of the main orchestras, such as Spanish National Orchestra, RTVE Symphony Orchestra, and Orquesta Sinfònica del Vallès. Yukiko is interested in exploring new repertoires and likes to present japanese composers such as Takemitsu, Miyoshi o Hosokava.

Akiko Ebi

JAPAN

Pianist Akiko Ebi was born in Osaka. She studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts, and won the piano prize of the 41st Music Competition of Japan. Her international career began with her winning the 2nd Prize at the 1975 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris. She continued her studies with Aldo Ciccolini at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1980, she won the 5th Prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. She has performed throughout the world and her international career continues with annual tours in Japan and appearances at international music festivals including the Festival de La Roque d’Anthéron and La Folle Journée in France, and the Echternach Music Festival in Luxembourg.

She has recorded Chopin’s complete études, preludes, nocturnes, impromptus, and his Piano Concerto No. 1, as well as works by Grieg, Franck, Ravel, Fauré, Webern and others. Made a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government, she is also a recipient of Japan’s prestigious Exxon-Mobile Music Prize. She has been a juror at major international piano competitions, including the Hamamatsu Piano Competition in Japan and the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. She is a member of the trust board of the Chopin Society of Japan and president of the committee at the Yokohama International Piano Competition.

Elisenda Fábregas

SPAIN

Elisenda Fábregas is a Catalan composer with a versatile career. She studied piano at the Municipal Conservatory of Barcelona, and after, she went to study in the USA with a Fulbright scholarship, where she obtained a master’s and a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Juilliard School, a doctorate from Columbia University Teachers College in education and also a doctorate in music composition from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.

Until recently, she was based in Seoul, South Korea, where she was a Visiting Professor of music and cultural studies at Kyung-Hee University Humanitas College. She also taught composition at Ewha`s Women`s University and was a piano teacher at Chugye University for the Arts.

During her early career, Elisenda performed as a pianist throughout Europe and the US. These experiences and training as a performer ultimately propelled her towards musical composition. Elisenda Fábregas has written compositions for chamber ensemble, voice, choir, symphony orchestra and wind ensemble. His music has been performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., the Merkin Concert Hall in New York, the Salle Cortot in Paris and the L'Auditori de Barcelona, among others.
In 2000, she received the national award "Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year" from the Music Teachers National Association in Washington D.C. for the piano composition "Portraits I".

Fernando Rossano

ITALY

After completing his brilliant musical studies at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, the École Normal Alfred Cortot in Paris and the Superior Conservatory of Music and Dance and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, he began a career as a concert performer and piano teacher. Several great artists such as Gabriel Tacchino and Brigitte Engerer, his teachers, but also Leon Fleisher and Aldo Ciccolini, have shaped the pianist and teacher he is today. Rossano deepened his study of Mozart's musical language with Christian Zacharias and in 2000, Alexis Weissenberg personally awarded him the Alexis Weissesnberg Prize.

Prize-winner at several international competitions, Fernando Rossano has performed in all the major venues under the baton of conductors such as Phillipe Bender, Gerard Korsten or Romolo Gessi.

He has taught at the CNR in Marseille and at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne, as well as at the Pôle Sup 93. He currently teaches at the CRR in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, as well as at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. He has been invited to give master classes in France and Portugal, and to serve as jury member in several international piano competitions. He has made several piano transcriptions, mainly of Grieg (Peer Gynt’s Orchestral Suites, Suite Holberg), Ravel (La Valse) and Mozart (the overture to “The Marriage of Figaro” for 5 pianos). Grieg’s transcriptions have been recorded in a CD by Phoenix Classics.

Vestard Šimkus

LATVIA

Vestards Šimkus is a Latvian pianist, composer and improviser. He was a student in Emīls Dārziņš Music School in Riga under Ruta Švinka, Ligita Muižarāja, Teofils Biķis and Sergejs Osokins. He studied at the University of Southern California under Daniel Pollack, at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid under Dimitri Bashkirov and Claudio Martínez Mehner and at the Richard Strauss Konservatorium in Munich under Vadim Suchanov. Shimkus has also studied composition for five years under the renowned Latvian contemporary composer Pēteris Vasks. He performs improvised concerts and takes part in experimental events with actors and performance artists. He has won several international and national awards such as the 1st Prize at the F. Liszt International Competition in Los Angeles and the 1st Prize and the Audience Prize at the 55th Maria Canals International Music Competition in Barcelona, among others. Šimkus plays classical repertoire, composes music for cinema and theatre, and performs his own compositions and spontaneous improvisations. As a solo pianist, he has performed in major concert halls around the world including Konzerthaus (Vienna and Berlin), Palau de la Música (Barcelona) and Oriental Art Center (Shanghai). Šimkus has written two piano concertos and a number of solo piano and chamber music works.

Inesa Sinkevych

UKRAINE/ISRAEL

Ukrainian-born pianist Inesa Sinkevych began her piano studies under Victor Makarov at the Kharkov Special Music School, in her native Ukraine, and later studied under Alexander Volkov at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. A laureate of the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, she has also won the 1st Prize at the María Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona and at the Premio Jaén International Piano Competition.

A scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation enabled her to further her studies with Solomon Mikowsky in the United States, where she took her Doctorate in Musical Arts at the Manhattan School of Music, and where she is a member of the Piano Faculty since 2008.
She has performed as a recitalist, chamber musician and soloist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Lisbon Gulbenkian Orchestra, the National Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. She performed at the Israeli Presidential Conference (2008) in Jerusalem for the President of the United States, G.W. Bush, and the President of Israel, Shimon Peres. Inesa Sinkevych is head of the jury at the International Shostakovich Piano Competition in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. She also serves as visiting faculty at the FaceArt Music School in Shanghai and as an honorary advisor to the Leaves Music School in Nanjing, China.

Marie Vermeulin

FRANCE

French pianist Marie Vermeulin began her piano studies at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Boulogne-Billancourt. From 2001 to 2004 she attended the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon, where she was a student of Hortense Cartier-Bresson and Edson Elias. She underwent further training with Lazar Berman and Roger Muraro.

She won several international competition prizes: 1st Prize at the Tournoi International de Musique (Italy, 2004), 2nd Prize at the International Maria Canals Competition (Barcelona, 2006), and 2nd Prize at the Concours International Olivier Messiaen (Paris, 2007). Marie Vermeulin has been invited by major festivals and concert halls in France (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Philharmonie, Opéra de Paris, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Opéra de Limoges, festival Messiaen au pays de la Meije, etc.), as well as internationally (Spain, Italy, Germany, Great Britain,
USA, China).
She regularly appears with orchestras, and has collaborated with numerous well-known conductors such as Darrel Ang, Paul Goodwin, Debora Waldman, Pavel Berman, Walid Moussallem, Salvador Brotons, and Pierre Boulez. Marie Vermuelin is supported by Fondation Safran pour la musique, Mécénat musical Société Générale and by the Institut français for international tours. In November 2014, her lifetime achievements were rewarded by the Académie des Beaux-Art, and with the Prix d’Interprétation from Simone et
Cino Del Duca Foundation, under the banner of the Institut de France.

Catherine Vickers

CANADA

Pianist Catherine Vickers was born in Regina, (Saskatchewan) and studied in Edmonton (Alberta) before going to Germany to further her studies with professors Bernhard Ebert and Hans Leygraf at Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover. She was awarded the Gold Medal at the F. Busoni International Piano Competition. Vickers is also a prize winner at the Sydney International Piano Competition.
She performs in Europe, Asia and South America. Her extensive repertoire includes standard and avant-garde works of piano literature. Volume lll of The Listening Hand, her piano exercises for contemporary music, was published by Schott Music, in the autumn of 2017. She has been a professor at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt am Main since 1998, and prior to that position, was professor at the Folkwang University of the Arts, in Essen. She teaches master classes at international academies such as the Summer Academy Mozarteum and serves as a jury member at several international piano and chamber music competitions. She is a regular guest at international festivals. Catherine Vickers was Artistic Director of the Piano Plus Festival in Karlsruhe for 10 years.