Oxana Yablonskaya (USA) - Chair
Tamas Vesmas (NZ)
Joaquin Soriano (Spain)
Ian Holtham (Victoria)
Gerard Willems (NSW)
Natasha Vlassenko (Qld) |
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Oxana Yablonskaya was born in Moscow. As an adolescent she attended The Moscow Central School for the Gifted under Anaida Sumbatyan until the age of 16. She later studied at the Conservatory of Moscow with Aleksandre Goldenweiser. At 22, she began a professional relationship with Tatiana Nikolayeva in the Doctorate Program, later acting as her assistant at the Moscow Conservatory. Following her graduation, she was introduced to the Western World at the Jacques Long-Thibaud Competition in 1963, the Rio de Janeiro Competition in 1965, and the Vienna Beethoven Competition in 1969. |
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Associate Professor Ian Holtham is Head of Keyboard and Head of Practical Studies at the Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne. He had specialist musical training from an early age and travelled to Europe on scholarship in his teens where he was based for over a decade. He is a student of Géza Anda, Geoffrey Parsons, Enrique Barenboim and Peter Feuchtwanger whose assistant he was for nearly five years in London. He also studied composition and conducting at the Guildhall School of Music. He made his South Bank and Wigmore Hall débuts before he was twenty and has performed throughout Australia, England, Ireland, Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, Hungary, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Korea. As concerto soloist he has performed with a number of distinguished conductors including Henry Krips, Geoffrey Simon, Patrick Thomas and Spiros Rantos. |
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Tamas Vesmas was born in Romania and began studying piano and composition under Professor Ella Philipp at the age of ten. His career as a soloist began at the age of fourteen with recitals and appearances with leading symphony orchestras throughout Romania. He continued his studies at the Bucharest Music Academy where he became a pupil of Florica Musicescu, Dinu Lipatti’s teacher. In 1962, he won the National Competition for Young Soloists in Bucharest. He then studied in Paris with Yvonne Lefébure and Monique de la Bruchollerie, both Professors at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1968, he was awarded the Gold Medal in the International Claude Debussy Competition in Paris after which he was invited to become Assistant Professor at the Music Academy in Bucharest. |
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Natasha Vlassenko was born in Moscow and graduated from Moscow Central Music School and Moscow Conservatory under Professor Jakob Flier and pursued postgraduate studies with her father, Professor Lev Vlassenko. As a student she was awarded the prestigious Tchaikovsky Scholarship. Natasha has won major prizes in several international competitions including the Beethoven International Piano Competition in Vienna and the Busoni International Piano Competition in Balzano, Italy. She has given recitals in many countries and has played under the baton of Rozhdestvensky, Osterriher, Pletnev, Martin, Verbitsky, Chivjel, Hickox and others.
Before coming to Australia in 1992, Natasha Vlassenko taught in the Central Music School of Moscow Conservatory. Natasha is currently Head of Keyboard Studies at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. |
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Joaquin Soriano plays in recitals in Europe, Asia and USA. He began his studies with Magenti and later with Perlemuter, Heuclin and Brendel. After having won the first prize at the Vercelli competition in 1965, at Naples, at Casella and at Pozzoli, he participated in the Chopin competition in Warsaw. |
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Gerard migrated to Australia in 1958 where he entered the Sydney Conservatorium, studying with Gordon Watson. After winning many prizes in national competitions, he pursued studies with Greville Rothon, Claudio Arrau’s assistant, in Munich. In 1981 he joined the staff of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he is now Chair of the Keyboard Unit. |
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Marco Zuccarini will conduct The Queensland Orchestra in the Final of the Competition. He joins the jury for the Final. |
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Competition - 2007 
