Jury

Pavel Gililov was born in 1950 in the Ukraine. As a child prodigy he was supported by Dimitri Kabalewsky. He completed his piano studies at the Leningrad Conservatory with honours. Still a student, Pavel Gililov won the National Piano Competition in Moscow in 1972. He is the winner of the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and the International Viotti Piano Competition in Vercelli (1st prize). In 1978 Pavel Gililov emigrated to the West and continued his concert and teaching activities.

A renowned pedagogue, with many international piano competition prize-winners amongst her students, Vanessa has been Head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music since 2005. Awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Music in 2010 for outstanding services to music, an honour conferred on her by HRH Prince of Wales, in September 2011, she was granted a Personal Chair at the RCM, which gave her the title of Chair of International Keyboard Studies. As an extension to her keyboard faculty work, Vanessa was appointed as the Associate Director for Partnerships in Asia, which involves managing the RCM’s collaborative work in China and the RCM’s degree programmes at Nangyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. Vanessa was previously a professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music for 14 years, where she was made an Honorary Associate in 1997.

Hailed by the Gramophone magazine as ‘an exceptional talent,’ Graham Scott has performed extensively throughout the world notably in London (Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Barbican Centre,) New York (92nd St. Y), Washington DC (Kennedy Center), Los Angeles (Ambassador Auditorium), Beijing (Beijing Concert Hall and Forbidden City Concert Hall), Paris (Bagatelle) and Tokyo (Suntory Hall). He has performed as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras, notably the London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Belgium National Symphony, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinlandpfalz (standing in for Martha Argerich), South African National Symphony Orchestra, Cape Town Symphony, Singapore Symphony, St Louis Symphony, Ulster Orchestra and the New York Chamber Symphony under such conductors as Sir Charles Groves, Marin Alsop, Paul Daniel, Bernhard Klee, Barry Wordsworth, Nicholas Cleobury, Gregorz Nowak and Alexander Lazarev. His numerous chamber music appearances include performances with members of the Australian Chamber Orchestra in the Huntingdon Festival in New South Wales, Australia. He has also collaborated with the Chillingirian, Heath and Vertavo quartets.

Over a twenty year career Matthew Trusler developed a reputation as one of Britain’s leading violinists, performing with many of the world’s great orchestras, and receiving huge critical acclaim for his diverse recordings. In the UK he performed at the BBC Proms, and regularly appeared as soloist with major orchestras including all the BBC Orchestras, the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham, the Hallé and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Further afield, he appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hanover, Helsinki Philharmonic, Deutsche Symphony Berlin, Malaysian Philharmonic, Düsseldorf Tonhalle, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen and Johannesburg Philharmonic.

Described as an ‘endlessly fascinating artist’, Ashley Wass’s musical career is one of unusual creativity and variety. Alongside his work as soloist and chamber musician, he is co-founder of Mash Productions, was Artistic Director of the Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival for eleven years, has devoted over 15 years to music education, and is currently the Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School. The diverse list of people and organisations with whom he has collaborated include film festivals, art galleries and animators, children’s television presenters and stars of the stage and screen, illustrators, literary festivals and renowned authors, and mime artists and comedians.