Jury Members
Akiko Ebi, pianist
President of the Chopin Society of Japan
Trained at Tokyo University of the Arts, Akiko Ebi distinguished herself by winning first prize in the Japanese national piano competition at the age of 19 in Japan. She was immediately invited to France for further training. She entered Aldo Ciccolini's class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, and a few years later was awarded First Prize and the Monique de la Bruchollerie Special Prize. She then continued her studies with Louis Kentner in London. She took part in the 1975 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Competition, winning 2nd Grand Prix and four special prizes. In 1980, she won the Warsaw Chopin Competition, opening the door to a great career.
Active in 37 countries as a musician, taking part in festivals, TV and radio recordings broadcast in many parts of the world: Japan, Europe, USA, Canada, Central and South America, Russia, China and the Middle East.
She has performed with many prestigious orchestras, including the NHK Symphony, most Japanese orchestras, the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Argentina, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, and major British orchestras, under conductors such as Skrowazcewski, Bruggen, Janowski, Sinaisky, Foster, Sado, Guschulbauer, Calderón, Milanov, Klee, Wolinska, Pommier etc.
She performs two pianos and four hands with Martha Argerich, and one of their concerts has been broadcast on TV several times in many European countries, as well as in Israel and Japan.
She has recorded Chopin's complete etudes, preludes, nocturnes and impromptus, as well as his Concerto in E minor, and works by Grieg, Franck, Ravel, Fauré, Webern and others.
Named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, she is also the winner of Japan's prestigious Exxon-Mobile Music Prize. She is a regular jury member at major international piano competitions, notably in Hamamatsu and Warsaw (Chopin Competition).
She is President of the Chopin Society of Japan and Chair of the Yokohama International Piano Competition Committee.
Yves Henry, pianist
Professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris
In a career spanning almost 40 years, which has taken him to the world's greatest concert halls, from the Berlin Philharmonic to Carnegie Hall, from the Théâtre des Champs Elysées to Victoria Hall, Yves Henry has won countless awards and traveled the world. His interpretations of the Romantic repertoire, in particular the works of Schumann (whose international competition he won in Zwickau at the age of 22) and those of Chopin, which he was one of the first to explore on period instruments, have won him international recognition and made him a sought-after teacher.
His discography includes some twenty CDs, almost all of which feature works by Chopin, on both modern and period pianos. His Complete Chopin Mazurkas on period piano, published in 2020, his CD “Chopin à Nohant, la chambre enchantée” on Pleyel 1837, published in 2022, and his Double Complete Chopin Waltzes (Pleyel 1837 and Bechstein 2020), published in 2024, each received 5 Diapasons and other awards from Classica.
Professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris since 1999, he gives masterclasses at leading universities in the USA (Yale, Boston University, NEC), Asia (Central Conservatory in Beijing, Shanghai University, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Toho University in Tokyo), and Europe (Poland, Germany, Italy). He is a jury member at major international competitions (World Music Master in Monte-Carlo, Schumann International Piano Competition in Zwickau, Chopin Competition in Warsaw).
In 2010, Yves Henry was elevated to the rank of Officier des Arts et des Lettres and awarded the Gloria Artis by the Polish state. In j2011, he succeeded Alain Duault as President of the Nohant Festival Chopin after fifteen years as Artistic Director. In 2021, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Federation of Chopin Societies in Warsaw. In 2023, he initiated the twinning of the Maison de George Sand in Nohant with Chopin's birthplace in Poland. In 2024, he was appointed to the Program Committee of the Chopin Institute in Warsaw.
In 2025, he played an active part in the creation of the 1st Pleyel International Chopin Piano Competition in Nohant, created jointly by the Centre des monuments nationaux, the Nohant Festival Chopin and Pianos Pleyel.
Kevin Kenner, pianist
Teacher at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music (USA)
Recognized by Fanfare Magazine and others as “...One of the important Chopin pianists of our time”, Kevin Kenner was the top prize winner in the 1990 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, as well as top prizes in the Tchaïkowsky International Piano Competition in Moscow and the Terrance Judd Competition, among others.
Born in California, Kenner was introduced early to the classical music traditions of Poland and studied as a teenager with Poland’s eminent professor Ludwik Stefański in Cracow. When he returned to the United States, he continued his studies with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and worked with Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Center. Following a concert tour with conductor Stanisław Skrowaczewski, who frequently performed and recorded with Artur Rubinstein, described his collaborations with Kenner to be the most sensitive and beautiful he remembered.
He has performed and recorded with violinist Kyung-Wha Chung and concertized with the Tokyo, Escher, Belcea, Mosaiques, Apollon Musagete, Endellion and Vogler Quartets. In addition, he has frequently been invited to appear at the Verbier Festival and Warsaw’s Chopin and His Europe Festival, and Nohant Festival Chopin in France.
A distinguished recording artist, Kenner’s interpretations of works by Paderewski and Chopin were each picked as recordings of the month by Grammophone magazine. Other recordings were heralded by Diapason, Fanfare and Polish National Radio.
After teaching for more than a decade as professor at London’s Royal College of Music, Kenner accepted a post at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, where he continues to prepare many young talented pianists for international performance careers.
He has served as juror at the Busoni Competition in Bolzano and at the Chopin International Competition in Warsaw among many others.
Ewa Pobłocka, pianist
Teacher at the Bydgoszcz Academy of Music (Poland)
Ewa Pobłocka is a prize-winner of the 10th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (1980), where she also won the prize for the best performance of mazurkas. She won First Prize in the International Viotti Music Competition in Vercelli (1977) and the gold medal in the International Festival of Young Laureates in Bordeaux (1979).
Ewa Pobłocka has performed throughout Europe and the Americas, as well as in China, Indonesia, the RSA, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Australia. She has played as a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Bayerischers Rundfunkorchester, Sinfonia Varsovia and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. She repeatedly toured as a Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra soloist under the baton of Kazimierz Kord.
Ewa Pobłocka has worked with European radio stations and recorded more than 50 discs (for Deutsche Grammophon, Polskie Nagrania, CD Accord and Bearton, among others). Many of her recordings have won prizes and critical acclaim, just to mention two ‘Record of the Year’ distinctions awarded by the 'Studio' Magazine and the John Field Medal for the recording of his complete Nocturnes (the first recording of the whole set ever made). She is the first Polish pianist in history to record both volumes of Das Wohltemperierte Klavier by Bach. Recently she has
performed both the volumes during the recitali series in many venues in Europe. Her last album with the 1st book has been awarded as recording of the month by and has been placed among the fifty best recordings of Bach’s music in history by the 'Gramophone' Magazine, also receiving special commendation in 'The Record Geijutsu’.
She is a distinguished pedagogue, teaching at the Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz. She has given numerous master classes in Canada, The United States, Vietnam, Japan, Mongolia, Korea, China, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Poland, and Belgium, among many others. She has been a jury member of the most prestigious international piano competitions, such as the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Artur Rubinstein Competition in Tel-Aviv, as well as the competitions in Hamamatsu, Pretoria, Calgary, Hastings and Ettlingen, among many others.
Ewa Pobłocka also willingly devotes herself to literary activities – her first book, ‘Forte-piano’, was released in 2021. Since 2020, she has been running the broadcasts ‘Start with Bach’ and ‘Bach’s Cases” in Polish Radio
Bruno Rigutto, pianist
Professor at the École Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot, Paris (France)
Trained at the Paris Conservatoire, Bruno Rigutto studied piano with Lucette Descaves, chamber music with Jean Hubeau, composition and conducting.
A young winner of the Marguerite Long and Tchaikovsky competitions (the latter presided over by Emil Gilels), he met Samson François at the age of 17, and was his disciple for ten years.
Embarking on an international career, he has been invited by the greatest conductors - Carlo Maria Giulini, Georges Prêtre, Lorin Maazel, Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur... - and performs chamber music with the greatest: Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Yo-Yo Ma, Barbara Hendricks, Michel Portal, Brigitte Engerer, Laurent Korcia, Marc Coppey, Augustin Dumay and the Debussy and Modigliani quartets.
Among his forty or so recordings, many of which have won awards - including several Grands Prix du Disque and a Victoire de la Musique - are a boxed set released in 2014 featuring several of his recordings for Decca, from Haydn to Prokofiev, and a complete set of Chopin's Nocturnes released by Aparté in 2019, to rave reviews. His next recording will be devoted to Schumann.
At the same time a conductor and composer, Bruno Rigutto has written several film and theater scores, directed by Bernard Murat.
Teaching is also an important part of his life: he taught for over twenty years at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where he succeeded Aldo Ciccolini, and contributed to the training of young soloists who today lead international careers - Kotaro Fukuma, Romain Descharmes, Guillaume Coppola, Etsuko Hirose, Lise de La Salle, Claire-Marie Le Guay, François Dumont...
He teaches at national summer academies (Nice, Tignes...), and gives numerous master classes in Europe, China, Japan and Korea. Today, he is professor at the École Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot, where he tirelessly pursues the transmission of the principles acquired from his masters and his own experience.
Rena Shereshevskaya, pianist
Professor at the École Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris (France)
A sought-after piano teacher who has trained a host of the finest young pianists of our time (Alexandre Kantorow, Lucas Debargue, Rémi Geniet and many others), pianist Rena Shereshevskaya was named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, honorary professor of the Ippolitov-Ivanov Higher Musical and Pedagogical Institute in Moscow. She was awarded the Ippolitov-Ivanov International Prize for Musical Pedagogy “for her outstanding contribution to the development of world musical culture”.
A graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and holder of a Doctorate in Teaching and Performance, she taught for 12 years at the Central Special School for Gifted Children at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and headed the piano department at the Ippolitov-Ivanov Higher Institute of Music and Pedagogy in Moscow.
In 1993, invited to France by the Conservatoire National de Colmar to organize a program for precocious children, she settled there with her family. Alongside her teaching activities in Colmar, she also taught at the CNSM in Paris, the Conservatoire de Rueil-Malmaison and the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot, where she still teaches today. Rena Shereshevskaya gives master classes and public interpretation courses throughout the world, as well as at various academies and festivals such as La Roque d'Anthéron in France, Verbier and Sion in Switzerland, New-Paltz in the USA, Académie de Nice, and conservatories in France, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and Spain (e.g. Haute École de Musique de Lausanne, Ecole Reine-Sophie in Madrid...). She is also a jury member at major international competitions such as Long Thibaud (France), Santander (Spain), Geza Anda (Switzerland), Montreal (Canada), Maj Lind (Finland) and others.
In parallel with her intense teaching career, she performs chamber music alongside internationally renowned musicians. She also forms a duo with her daughter, mezzo-soprano Victoria Shereshevskaya. The duo performs at numerous festivals in France and Europe. She is also the creator and artistic director of the “Les Dynasties et les Familles Artistiques” festival, which has been held for several years in Vitré and Taverny.
Danwen Wei, pianist
Teacher and chairman of “The Central Conservatory of Music of China” piano department in Beijing.
Danwen Wei, a native of the People’s Republic of China, is hailed as one of the most outstanding musicians of his generation. His commanding technique and artistic temperament have resulted in his appearances as soloist with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Augusta Symphony, symphony of the Americas, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Shanghai Symphony, the Shanghai Broadcasting Orchestra, the National Orchestra of China and the Singapore Symphony among many others. His performance with the New York Philharmonic was broadcast on PBS“ ’Live from Lincoln Center” series.
A Steinway Artist, Mr. Wei has performed in cities throughout the United States as well as in Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Switzerland, Hong Kong, and mainland China. Mr. Wei has performed in festivals such as the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Mostly Mozart festival in New York, the Beijing Music Festival, and the “Tuscan Sun Festival” in Cortona, Italy. His two solo albums were released on 3D Classic label, and a concerto performance was released by China Record Company.
In recent years, Mr. Wei is expanding into the area of conducting as well. He has conducted Soloisti di Perigia, Badapest Youth Symphony, The Oshdot Symphony of Israel, University of Alicante Symphony,and Shenyang Youth Symphony, and the Master’s Chamber Orchestra of Central Conservatory of music of China among others. He has been a principal conductor of Music Fest Perugia in Italy since 2013.
A graduate of the Juilliard School and one of the last pupils of the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz, Mr. Wei is now a much sought after teacher in China and a frequent adjudicator in both national and international piano competitions. He has been invited to give lectures and master classes both in China and abroad. Mr. Wei’s students have won top prizes in many competitions, and he is a faculty member of many summer festivals including Musicfest Perugia in Perugia, Italy, and Beijing Music festival and Academy. Currently Mr. Wei is on the faculty of the Central Conservatory of music of China in Beijing, and became chairman of piano department in 2019.