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“Shmukler is a volcano” and “the name of Ilya Shmukler should be remembered” is how the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described this pianist after his triumph at the Concours Géza Anda 2024 in Zurich, Switzerland, where he won four major awards in addition to the First Prize. When he was 3, Ilya’s mother found him jumping on the bed and singing Robertino Loreti’s “Jamaica” beautifully. It was important to his parents, however, to raise their boy as a well-rounded person, so his early years were also spent with school, table tennis, and ballroom dancing before focusing on music. Since then, Ilya Shmukler made solo appearances in Europe and North America, and performed with such artists as Mikhail Pletnev, Paavo Järvi, Marin Alsop, Nicholas McGegan, Junichi Hirokami, Anne-Marie McDermott, Anton Nel and David Radzynski. Collaborations include the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Mariinsky, Fort Worth Symphony, Sendai Philharmonic, Kansas City Chamber, Bayer-Symphoniker, and New Music Orchestras. To have become a finalist and the recipient of the award for the “Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto” at the Cliburn Competition is a milestone in his career, as is his New York debut as a winner of the Carnegie Weill Recital Hall Debut Audition in the same year 2022. An alumnus of the Moscow State Conservatoire under the guidance of Elena Kuznetsova and Sergey Kuznetsov, Ilya continues his studies at Park University (USA) with Stanislav Ioudenitch.

Daumants Liepiņš, mentioned by Pianist Magazine as “one of the pianists to look out for in 2020”, is one of the most sought-after Latvian pianists worldwide. After the release of his first solo album, “Zemzaris. Rachmaninov”, critics described him as “sensitive, imaginative, in full command of his instrument’s resources, effortlessly keeping listeners transfixed”. He is a laureate of numerous piano competitions, most notably the 1st Vendome Prize at the Verbier Festival, 1st Prize at the Maria Canals Piano Competition, as well as 2nd prizes at the George Enescu and Géza Anda Piano Competitions. Daumants’ appearances with orchestra include the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchestra Zurich, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, Bilbao and Tenerife Symphony Orchestras, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Symphony Orchestra, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Romanian and Georgian National Symphony Orchestras, and many others. Currently, he resides in Madrid, where he continues his studies at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía.

Dmitry Yudin was born in Moscow in 2001. From 2008 to 2019, he studied with Lydia Grigoryeva at the Gnessin School of Music and took part in national and international competitions and festivals, winning prizes and the favour of audiences at numerous international events. Dmitry has given solo recitals across Russia and abroad. His performance record includes concertos with orchestras such as the Baltic States Youth Symphony Orchestra, Baltic Music Academy Symphony Orchestra, Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, St Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra, Tomsk Academic Symphony Orchestra. Since August 2019, he has been studying with Horacio Gutierrez at the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he was awarded a full scholarship. During the pandemic, he gave several virtual solo recitals for the MSM. In February 2022, Dmitry became the winner of the MSM Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2, performing this piece with the MSM Philharmonia Orchestra and conductor George Manahan later that year. In 2023, Dmitry played a recital in Boston after winning the HMA Foote Award. Moreover, he won the third prize at the New York Concert Artists Auditions, and the second prize at the Wideman Concerto Competition in Shreveport, Louisiana. Among his latest musical accomplishments is the second prize at the Géza Anda International Piano Competition (Zurich, Switzerland, 2024).

Born in Kyoto (Japan), pianist Wataru Hisasue has received numerous awards, including third prize and the Special Prize for the Best Interpretation of the Commissioned Work at the 66th ARD International Music Competition. He performs in Germany, Japan, France, Spain, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands, including at the Konzerthaus Berlin, Kioi Hall, Tokyo, Salle Cortot, Paris and at festivals such as the AUDI Music Festival, the Schwetzingen SWR Festival, the Fringe Festival in Torroella de Montgri (Spain) and the “Prèmiere rencontre autour du piano” in Guadeloupe. As a soloist he played with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Musikkollegium Winterthur and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. Wataru has received scholarships from the Rohm Music Foundation, the Carl Bechstein Foundation, the German Orchestra Foundation (#MusikerZukunft scholarship) and from the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media as part of the NEUSTART KULTUR programme. His musical training was influenced by Kuniko Murakami, Yasuko Tasumi, Gilead Mishory, Emmanuel Strosser, Pascal Devoyon and Klaus Hellwig. Initially trained at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, Germany, and the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse in Paris, he will complete his postgraduate studies at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2025. Several of Wataru’s CDs have been released by ART INFINI and Deutsche Grammophon (Universal Music Japan).

Laura Mota Pello is a Spanish pianist who studies at the Basle Music-Academy with Claudio Martínez Mehner. She has won numerous first prizes at international competitions: the 8th Competition “Antón García Abril”, 15th Competition “Santa Cecilia”, 21st Competition “Ciutat de Carlet”, 5th Competition “María Herrero”, 6th “Ciudad de Cuenca” Competition. She was also a finalist at the Aarhus International Piano Competition 2017, and played in Spain (Teatro Jovellanos, Teatro Filarmónica, Oviedo and León Auditoriums, Shigeru Kawai Center), in Germany (Reinbek Castle at the invitation of the Chopin Society Hamburg, Summer Music Days Hitzacker), in Mexico City (XXII International Piano Festival “En blanco y negro”) and other countries. She performed at festivals such as the Clavicologne Piano Festival, the Tel-Hai International Piano Masterclasses, the Palazzo Ricci European Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Montepulciano and with orchestras such as the Oviedo Filarmonía and the Hamburg Camerata. Laura was given lessons by Elisabeth Leonskaja, Robert Levin, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and András Kemenes, among others. She is a winner of the first prize of the Swiss “Rahn Kulturfonds Music Prize” 2024 and as a result was invited to play with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra at the KKL Lucerne. At the Concours Geza Anda 2024, she was awarded the Hortense Anda Bursary and the Hungarian Special Prize Performance.

Valentin Malinin, born in Nizhny Novgorod in 2001, is a Russian pianist and composer. In 2020, he completed his studies at the Moscow Central Music School in the class of Mira Marchenko, whereas currently he is a student at the Moscow Conservatoire (piano class of Kseniya Knorre). Valentin was awarded second prize and the silver medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, he is also the winner of the 25th International Scriabin Competition (Italy), prizewinner of the International F. Busoni Piano Competition (Italy), winner of the Hortense Anda Bursary at the Concours Géza Anda 2024, and a participant in international music festivals such as the Rheingau Music Festival (Germany), the Rafael Orozco Piano Festival (Spain) and “Faces of Contemporary Pianism” (Russia). In addition, he also won prizes at international competitions for composers. Valentin took private piano lessons with Mikhail Pletnev, Boris Bloch, Kirill Gerstein, Stanislav Ioudenitch and Pavel Nersesyan. In 2022, he released a CD with Naxos, which contains music by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Scriabin and Granados, as well as his own piano fantasy, “The Pearl Fishers”.