JURY

Artur Pizarro – Jury Chairman 

Born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1968, Artur Pizarro gave his first public performance at the age of three and made his television début on Portuguese television at the age of four. He had been introduced to the instrument by his maternal grandmother, pianist Berta da Nóbrega, and her piano-duo partner, Campos Coelho who was a student of Vianna da Motta, Ricardo Viñes and Isidor Philipp. From 1974 to 1990 Artur studied with Sequeira Costa who had also been a student of Vianna da Motta and of Mark Hamburg, Edwin Fischer, Marguerite Long and Jacques Février. This distinguished lineage immersed Artur in the tradition of the ‘Golden Age’ of pianism and gave him a broad education in both the German and French piano schools and repertoire. During a brief interruption of his studies in the USA, Artur also studied with Jorge Moyano in Lisbon, and in Paris worked with Aldo Ciccolini, Géry Moutier and Bruno Rigutto.

Artur won first prizes in the 1987 Vianna da Motta Competition, the 1988 Greater Palm Beach Symphony Competition and won first prize at the 1990 Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, which marked the beginning of an international concert career.

Artur Pizarro performs internationally in recital, chamber music and with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Philippe Entremont, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Sir Andrew Davis, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Ilan Volkov, Franz Welser- Most, Tugan Sokhiev, Yakov Kreizberg, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Libor Pešek, Vladimir Jurowski, Ion Marin, John Wilson and the late Sir Charles Mackerras.

Artur is an active chamber musician and has performed at chamber music festivals throughout the world. Artur Pizarro has recorded extensively for Collins Classics, Hyperion Records, Linn Records, Brilliant Classics, Klara, Naxos, Danacord, Odradek Records and Phoenix Edition.

Artur Pizarro has received various awards from his native Portugal for services to classical music and culture including the Portuguese Press Award, the Portuguese Society of Authors award, the Medal of Culture of the City of Funchal and the Medal of Cultural Merit from the Portuguese Government.

Tiago Nunes – OPC Director

Tiago Nunes, from Coimbra, soon showed passion and aptitude for the world of music, having started studying piano at an early age, at the Conservatory of Music in Seia, where he completed the Basic Course. Later, he attended the Complementary Piano Course at the Conservatório de Música de Coimbra, in the class of professor Rita Dourado, having finished it with a high and distinct classification.

Always seeking growth and improvement, he has participated in several masterclasses by several pianists, including: Aquilles Delle Vigne (Argentina / Belgium), Fausto Neves (Portugal), Álvaro Teixeira Lopes (Portugal), Paulo Oliveira (Portugal), Luísa Tender (Portugal), Nancy Lee Harper (USA / Portugal), Paul Badura-Skoda (Austria), Rudolfo Rubino (Italy), Shao Ling (China), Yi Wu (China / USA), among others. He completed his degree in piano performance under the guidance of the pianist Fausto Neves. His career contemplates several prizes, distinctions and solo recitals throughout Europe.

Since the beginning of 2015, he has been the artistic director of the Coimbra Concert Cycle, that takes place in March in the city of Coimbra, having, this year, its fifth edition. Two years later, became founder and president of the CulturXis Artistic Association. He has been the director of the Oeiras Piano Competition since its foundation. In his activity as a professor, he has more than 20 students awarded in national and international competitions. Since 2017, he has been teaching and coordinating the piano department at the Montijo Conservatory of Arts. In 2020, with the pianist António Luís Silva, created a new project: the H4NDS Duo and recorded their first album.

Olga Vasilieva

Olga Vladimirovna Vasilieva, revealed from an early age a great fascination for music, beginning her piano studies at the age of five in the city of Dresden, Germany. At the age of ten she returned to her home country, the Soviet Union, where she studied in various cities and regions of the country. At the age of fourteen she entered the S. Ludkevitch Professional State School of Music, graduating with distinction. Afterwards she attended the M. Lisenko Higher State Conservatory of Music in the specialties of performance and pedagogy, in the class of teacher Irina Nemira, finishing the course “Master of Music” with the highest mark in the final examination of instrument.

At a very young age and simultaneously with her studies, she started giving piano lessons. Her pedagogical practice continued in Portugal, in several music schools of the country, namely the “Escola Profissional de Música de Viana do Castelo” and the “Conservatório de Música Calouste Gulbenkian de Braga”. For the last 10 years she has been a piano teacher at the “Escola Artística de Música do Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa”. Her long teaching practice counts with numerous students awarded in several national and international competitions.

Maria José Souza Guedes

She studied music at the Silva Monteiro Course, under the pianistic guidance of Ernestina Silva Monteiro and later Fernanda Wandschneider. Completed the final exam of this Course with top marks. She also finished the Superior Piano Course at the Conservatório de Música do Porto, with the highest marks.

At the same time, he graduated in Germanic Philology at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Porto.

She holds the First Prize “Varella Cid” and the Silva Monteiro Gold Medal.

With a grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation, she continued her piano studies, in Vienna, with Hans Graf. Later, he studied with Sequeira Costa, having attended many piano masterclasses, guided by Vlado Perlemuter, Jorg Demus, Carlos Cebro, Sequeira Costa, among others, and chamber music, guided by Maria João Pires, Augustin Dumay, Aurèle Nicolet, Patrick Gallois and Jean Ferrandis.

As a pianist, Maria José Souza Guedes holds a consolidated international career, with around 400 concerts performed, solo, with orchestra and chamber music, in important auditoriums and prestigious festivals, in Portugal, Spain (including Gran Canaria), Sweden, Poland, Romania, Greece, Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, Finland, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy (including Sardinia and Sicily), Belgium, Switzerland, France, Russia (including Siberia), Macedonia , Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Norway, Montenegro and USA.

She was a soloist with the Porto and Lisbon symphony orchestras, the Classical Orchestra and the Porto National Orchestra, the Porto Ensemble, the Szczecin Symphony Orchestra, the Silesian Chamber Orchestra and the Kazakhstan National Chamber Orchestra.

She has recorded 7 CDs, three solo and four in a duo with her husband Luís Meireles, which have received excellent reviews from the critics. , Radio Bartók (Hungary), Radio Slovenian National and Radio Vojvodina (Serbia).

Several works were dedicated to her, namely by the composer Fernando C. Lapa, which premiered at its first absolute audition: Plural III for clarinet and piano (1993), Variations on the Spring Choir for solo piano (2000), Duplo Concerto for flute, piano and string orchestra (2002), O Milagre do Amanhecer (2008), for piano and 4 Verses from Suspended Eyes, for piano and flute (2012)

She was part of the jury of the Fourth International Competition “Carlo Soliva” (Italia 1990), the XVII International Piano Competition of Porto (2000), the III Competition Maria Cristina Lino Pimentel (Torres Vedras 2003), the III International Competition “Gnessin” (Moscow , 2003), the IV Inter-Fest Bitola International Competition, in Macedonia (2004) and the A. Garcia Abril International Competition, (Teruel-Spain, 2010).

She has been a professor at the Conservatório de Música do Porto since 1982, after winning the respective public competition. Many of its students have regularly won prizes in national and international competitions.

Anna Tomasik-Michalczyk

Jorge Moyano

Borned in 1951, Jorge Moyano began his musical studies at the Fundação Musical dos Amigos das Crianças.

In 1968, he completed the Superior Piano Course at the National Conservatory of Music in Lisbon, in the class of Maria Cristina Lino Pimentel, having subsequently attended several improvement courses under the guidance of masters such as Helena Moreira de Sá e Costa, Karl Engel and Claude Helfer, between others.

However, in 1974, he finished the Civil Engineering course at Instituto Superior Técnico, and only in 1975, when he joined the Conservatory as a Piano teacher, did he dedicate himself exclusively to music.

Holder of several national awards, he currently teaches at the Superior School of Music in Lisbon, and at the same time maintains his activity as a concert performer. In this capacity, we can mention his participation in the concert seasons of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Centro Cultural de Belém and also in several festivals – Sintra, Algarve, Macau, Galicia, La Roque Anthéron, among many others.

He regularly participated in the Folle Journée in Nantes and Tokyo and in the Festa da Música in Lisbon.

He has performed with various orchestras – Gulbenkian, Portuguese Symphony, Porto National, Lisbon Metropolitana, Tokyo Symphony, European Community Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Musica Viva, Virtuosi di Kuhmo, etc. –, having also performed abroad, in countries such as Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia, Canada and Tunisia.

He is a regular member of juries for national competitions, having also been a member of the juries of the international competitions Vianna da Mota and Cidade do Porto.

He edited a CD with works by Schumann.

Constantin Sandu

The performing art of Constantin Sandu has developed under the influence of his Romanian masters – Sonia Ratescu, Constantin Nitu and, later on, Constantin Ionescu-Vovu at the “Ciprian Porumbescu” Higher Music Conservatory of Bucharest – and of other outstanding individualities such as Sequeira Costa, Dimitri Bashkirov, Helena Sá e Costa and Tânia Achot. His unique artistic personality blends accuracy and respect for the musical text with fascinating poetical sensitivity and imaginative sound spectrum

At the age of 14, he started his career as a soloist with orchestra. Since then, he has been involved in an intense musical activity – hundreds of recitals, chamber music and concerts with orchestra – in several European and Asiancountries, having had favourable appreciation from both the public and the critics: “his sensitive personality helps him give a very personal though valid version” (Piano Journal – United Kingdom); “a musician of an undoubted personality, (…) a magnificent sense of colour and rhythm, together with undeniable virtuosity” (Diario de Sevilla – Spain); “a superb pianist, (…) a masterful hue and delicacy (…) irreproachable mastery. Overwhelming.” (ABC – Spain); “an artistic performance of real excellence” (Muzica – Romania); “a concerto full of expression and emotion” (Público – Portugal); “A General leading his troops, the Bodensee Symphonic Orchestra.” (L’ Est Républicain – France); “The delicate and deep playing, the almost immaterial sound, carried the audience into a dimension of dream.” (Corriere Valsesiano – Italy).

He holds several awards at international competitions: Senigallia – Italy 1980 (2nd), Viotti-Valsesia – Italy 1981 (1st), Paloma O’Shea – Santander, Spain 1984 (Honourable mention), Epinal – France 1985 (2nd) and Maria Canals – Barcelona, Spain 1985 (3rd and Alberto Mozatti special prize).

He has participated in important Festivals, namely: Enescu – Bucharest, Chopin – Paris, Festival Internacional de Santander, Festival de Primavera – Sevilla, Ciudad de Ayamonte, Figueira da Foz, Espinho, Guimarães.

He is a regular guest soloist of the most significant Romanian orchestras, such as: George Enescu – Bucharest, Transilvania – Cluj, Oltenia – Craiova Philharmonics, and the Symphonic Orchestra of the Romanian Broadcasting. He has also played with noteworthy European orchestras, as for instance: Arthur Rubinstein – Lodz, Halle Philharmonic, Bodensee Orchestra – Konstanz, National Orchestra of Belarus, Symphonic Orchestra of Radio – television of Kiev, National Philharmonic of Moldavia, National Orchestra of Porto.

He has played with renowned conductors, such as: Cristian Mandeal, Horia Andreescu, Ludovic Bacs, Emanuel Elenescu, Ilya Stupel, Thomas Koncz, Victor Dubrovski, Emil Hatchaturian, Elena Herrera, Meir Minsky, Mark Stephenson, Heribert Beissel, Johen Wehner, Robert E. Luther and Didier Benetti and Piero Bellugi.

He has performed in celebrated concert halls (Ateneul Roman – Bucharest, Concert Hall of the Romanian Broadcasting Society – Bucharest, Palau de la Música Catalana – Barcelona, Iturbi hall of the Palau de la Música – Valencia, Manuel de Falla Auditorium – Granada, Mozart hall of the Zaragoza Auditorium, Teatro de Rojas – Toledo, Teatro Cervantes – Malaga, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation – Lisbon, Casa da Música – Porto) and in other important musical centres (London, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Rome, Turin,  Madrid, Seville, Bratislava, etc.).

He was a member of the jury of the following International Competitions: Vianna da Motta — Lisbon, Portugal 2001, Cidade do Porto — Portugal 1996, 1998, 2003 and 2010, Viotti-Valsesia — Italy 1995, Pinerollo-Cittá della cavalleria — Italy 1994 and 1996, Helena Sá e Costa — Aveiro, Portugal 2004, Florinda Santos — São João de Madeira, Portugal 2004, Ciudad de Toledo – Spain 2007 and Propiano – Bucharest, Romania 2008, 2009 and 2010.

He has given several master classes, among which the following  are to be mentioned: master classes within the Porto International Music Courses 1998, the Celebrating the Great Pianists Festival in Aveiro 2001 and the International Music Courses Ciudad de Gandia 2003; a master class at the National Music University of Bucharest 2005, another within the International Music Forum of Torrelodones 2008; master classes at the National Music Conservatory of Lisbon 2008 and several editions of the International Instrumental Courses of ARTAVE/Centro de Cultura Musical.

Within Porto 2001 — European Capital of Culture, he performed Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Porto National Orchestra, under the direction of Mark Tardue. This performance was integrated in an all-Rachmaninov-Concertos programme, in which he participated together with Vladimir Viardo, Sequeira Costa e Artur Pizarro.

He recorded several CDs – Beethoven (2001), Albeniz and Gershwin (2002), Portuguese and Romanian piano music (2005), Mozart and A. J. Fernandes Concertos (2009), Beethoven (2020) and other collective or chamber music works.

In 2006, he received the title of Ph. D. in music at the National Music University of Bucharest, with the thesis Portuguese Piano Music.

He has lived in Portugal since 1991 and presently teaches the piano at the Porto Higher School of Music and the Performing Arts, where he is the current Head of The Music Department.

Davorin Dolinšek

Davorin Dolinšek (1984) is a Slovenian pianist, piano pedagogue and composer. 

He studied piano at the Academy of Music Ljubljana, Academy of Music Franz Liszt – Budapest and at Superior School for Music and Performing Arts, Porto (ESMAE). Davorin studied piano under the mentorship of Milica Schneider, Vladimir Mlinarić, László Baranyay, Madalena Soveral and collaborated with other prominent professors such as Pavel Gililov, Arbo Valdma, Claudio Martinez Mehner, Henri Sigfridsson, Aleksandar Madžar, Czeslaw Stańczyk, and others.

He regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician in various formations and recorded for Eurosclassical and for Slovenian Radio-Television.

Davorin worked as a pedagogue at nine institutions in Slovenia and Portugal, including the University of Aveiro (2013–2014) and the Conservatory of Music Porto (2013–2015). He was one of the conceptual founders of the First 24h Piano Marathon in Portugal (2015). He is currently employed at the First Gymnasium in Celje and the Music School Celje (Slovenia) as a piano professor.

Davorin complements his work with composing: his opus consists of piano works (solo and duo), a musical fairy tale, art songs, works for various chamber music formations (duo, trio, string quartet) and string orchestra. He also composes instructive literature for children and youth for various instruments. In 2017, EPTA (European Piano TeachersAssociation) Slovenia published his musical fairy tale Ožbi and Cumulonimbus. In 2022, he published his piano collection for young pianists: Fairies, op. 13 and Fantasy pieces, op. 17.

Since 2016, Davorin is a member of the Executive Board of Slovenian EPTA and editor-in-chief of its piano magazine VirKLA. In 2022 he has become a vice-president of EPTA – Slovenia.