Second round jury
The rest of the final jury will be announced.
Martin Angerer holds the position of the first trumpet at the Bavaria Radio Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed as a soloist under the baton of conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Bernard Haitink, Alan Gilbert, Franz Welser Möst, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons, Herbert Blomstedt, Daniel Barenboim and Mariss Jansons. He has played at the most significant concert halls in the world, including the Viennese Musikverein, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, KKL Lucerne, NHK Tokyo and at the London Proms. He regularly appears as a sought-after guest with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Orchestra at the Leipzig Gewandhaus and many others. He has also released solo and orchestral recordings with Naxos, Deutsche Grammophon, Genuin and BR Klassik. A number of them have received prestigious awards, such as the Echo Klassik and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
The renowned oboist Jana Brožková graduated from the Prague Conservatory and the Music Faculty at the Academy of the Performing Arts in Prague. In 1983, she drew attention to herself by winning the Concertino Praga international competition and in 1989 she was the absolute winner and received a special prize at the Europäischer Musikpreis Zürich. She worked for a number of years as the solo oboist at the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra and she has played first oboe at the Czech Philharmonic since 2002. She also regularly performs as a soloist or as a member of chamber ensembles. She won the prestigious 1st prize in the ARD Munich competition in 1997 with the Afflatus Quintet. She has also been a teacher at the Music Faculty of the Academy of the Performing Arts in Prague since 1999.
Ian Fountain became the youngest winner of the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv in 1989 at the age of just nineteen. He has had a varied artistic career, throughout which he has frequently performed in Europe, the USA, Great Britain and the Far East with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra or the Czech Philharmonic. He has performed recitals on significant concert stages in New York, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, Madrid or Jerusalem. As a chamber player, he has long worked with musicians such as David Geringas, Erika Geldsetzer and the Mandelring Quartet and he has performed at concerts and festivals throughout Europe, Japan and Korea. He has a number of critically acclaimed recordings to his name for the EMI, CRD, Sony and Hänssler Classics recording companies. In 2015, he received the ECHO Music Prize. He has cooperated on the preparation of editions of Beethoven’s sonatas and variations for piano and violoncello, which were released by Henle Verlag. Since 2001, he has been active as a professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Octavia Galescu is a graduate of the Musicology Department at the National University of Music in Bucharest. She has worked as a journalist at Romanian Public Radio since 1993 and she is currently employed as a producer at the România Muzical radio station. She has produced a number of radio programs based on musical offers received from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and has been in charge of Concertino Praga registrations in Romania since 2005. Over the years, she has been involved in a number of musical events both in Romania and abroad: in 2017, 2020 and 2021, she participated at the World Journalists’ Conference in the Republic of Korea and she was a member of the international jury at the Prix Italia competition in 2021. She is the author of a number of articles, studies and expert publications, for example Virtuosity and Cantability: Historical Notes for Music Lovers, Matthew in Grandma’s Enchanted Garden, A Musical Journey along the Danube or A Musical Journey through Romania: Historical Monuments. Since 2018, she has been a member of the UZPR (Union of Professional Journalists of Romania) and has been a member of the UCIMR (Union of the Music Critics, Editors and Producers in Romania) since 2021.
Andrea Götsch works as a conductor with multiple orchestras, mainly in Austria, Italy, Bulgaria, Croatia and Korea. She has been a clarinettist at the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera since 2019 and has been an elected member of the Committee at the Philharmonic Society since 2023. She performs as a valued soloist with orchestras such as Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y Leó or Virtuosi Italiani. She is a laureate from a number of international competitions and a founding member of several ensembles, such as Divinerinnen, Clarinet & Strings Vienna and La Philharmonica. She also regularly performs with chamber ensembles and has a number of recordings to her name. She has taught at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna since 2020 and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg since March 2025. She also takes commissions as a composer and plays football both for the Wiener Philharmoniker and for the Wiener Sport-Club team in the Austrian women’s football league. She has further enriched her professional career with studies in psychology and philosophy, music and mental training.
Ladislav Horák is a graduate of the Prague Conservatory and the West Bohemian University in Pilsen. He won a national competition in Hořovice and became a laureate at international competitions in Andorra, Italy and Spain during his studies. He performs concerts as a soloist and as a chamber player with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc, the Brno Philharmonic or the Prague Philharmonia. He regularly performs at prestigious festivals in North America, Asia and throughout Europe. He promotes and performs new pieces by contemporary Czech and international authors which he regularly records for Czech and international media. Since 1992, he has been a teacher active at the Prague Conservatory, has led repeated masterclasses in Andorra, Italy, Poland, Hungary and so on. This year, he became the dramaturg of the Talich’s Beroun international music competition and he regularly represents the Czech Republic in international juries. Last year, he was the first Czech to be awarded the prestigious Merit Award by the Confédération internationale des accordéonistes (CIA) for his excellent contribution to the accordion.
Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt is a laureate from a number of prestigious competitions, including the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Leonard Rose international violoncello competition in the USA. He has performed around the world as a soloist with the most significant orchestras, such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra or Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France. He has collaborated with renowned conductors, including Marek Janowski, Charles Dutoit, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Jiří Bělohlávek, Vasilij Sinajskij, Gerd Albrecht, Michael Sanderling or Markus Poschner. He is also intensively involved in chamber music. His concert partners include soloists such as Lang Lang, Emanuel Ax, Gil Shaham, Isabelle Faust, Nikolaj Znaider, Leonidas Kavakos and David Shifrin. He has made a number of recordings for Sony Classical and Capriccio. He has recorded three highly regarded CDs with works by Dvořák, Suk, Tchaikovsky, Britten and Elgar in his capacity as the chief conductor of the Metamorphosen Berlin chamber orchestra, which he also founded. In 2013, he received the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik and the Diapason d'Or award.
Milan Šetena received a number of prizes from prestigious violin competitions while still a student. In 1987, he became the concertmaster of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester under the leadership of Claudio Abbado. One year later, he departed for Vienna, where, after studying for two years under Professor Alfred Staar, he won a place in the Orchestra for the Vienna State Opera and became a member of the Wiener Philharmoniker in 1994. In addition to his orchestral activities, he is also a member of the Wien–Berlin chamber orchestra and the Schulhoff Quartet and has been a member of the Wiener Streichersolisten chamber orchestra and the Wiener Geigen Quartett, with which he performed around the world and at music festival, such as the Salzburg festival or the Schubertiada. He is regularly invited to chamber music courses in Salzburg and to the international music forum in Trenta, Slovenia. In 2010, the Austrian National Bank loaned him its Sanctus Seraphin, Venedig violin dating from 1733. In May 2019, he received the title of Professor from the Austrian President, Alexander Van der Bellen.
Dmitry Sitkovetsky is a renowned violinist, conductor, composer, arranger, populariser and interpreter of music. In 1990, he established the New European Strings chamber orchestra which brought together the most significant string players from top-flight European ensembles, from the Russian and Western music environments. The name Dmitry Sitkovetsky has become a synonym for the art of transcription. His cult arrangements of Bach’s Goldberg Variations have taken on a life of their own: they are regularly performed on concert stages and many contemporary performers have made recordings of them. Sitkovetsky is also highly sought after as a jury member, a musical expert and a teacher. He was recently a jury member at the International Violin Competition in Indianapolis, the Concours Musical International de Montréal, the International Tchaikovsky Competition and the Enescu Violin Competition. He has many concerts throughout Europe and North America as a violinist and/or guest conductor in the 2022–2023 season, for example in Jerusalem, Berlin, Mexico City, Bucharest, Havana, Istanbul, Baku and Sophia.
The flautist Henrik Wiese was born in Vienna in 1971. He received his musical education under Ingrid Koch-Dörnbrak and Paul Meisen. He acquired his initial experience as an orchestral player as the second flute in the Munich Philharmonic under its former principal conductor Sergiu Celibidache. In 1995–2006, he was the principal flautist at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and he became the principal flautist at the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2006. He has synesthetic abilities, i.e. he hears colours. This rare gift is an important source of musical inspiration for him. He has performed as a soloist with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Hannover Radio Orchestra, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic, the Prague Chamber Orchestra and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. His extensive music activities are especially borne out by his recordings of chamber music. In addition to a modern Boehm flute, he also plays a baroque instrument, with which he performs in L'accadémia Giocosa. He has been a professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg for many years.