Our Jury
Fjodor Elesin is a Russian-born cellist, Artistic Director of SchlossAkademie, creator of the musical platform Classic@Home, artistic director, and producer of various international musical and digital projects, currently based in Germany. Under the constant tutelage of M. Rostropovich Fjodor Elesin began his musical path at the Saint Petersburg College of Music and at the age of
13 years he has already performed as a soloist with the St. Petersburg National Symphony Orchestra.
After graduating from the St. Petersburg State Conservatory, where he was taught by Vladimir Atapina, Elena Dernovoi, Alexander Ponomarenko and Alexey Vasiliev, Fjodor continues his studies in the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (class of Wolfgang Mehlhorn). Having received a scholarship awarded by Spanish Fund of Queen Sofia (Fundación Reina Sofía) to talented musicians, Elesin was able to study at the International Institute of Chamber Music (Instituto Internacional de Música de Cámer), where he was taught by Ralf Gothoni, Bruno Canino, and Menahem Pressler.
Over the years, Elesin has won 24 prizes and awards at various international music competitions. These include the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben Prize, the IBLA GRAND PRIZE, the Prokofyev Award, and others.
Fjodor actively tours with solo performances. He has appeared on stages of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Berlin Philharmonic, St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, with some of the best musicians of our time Viktor Tretyakov and David Geringas.
Magda Amara was born in Moscow and graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory in the class of Sergei Dorensky. She completed her studies with Stefan Vladar at the University of Music in Vienna and is a laureate of numerous national and international competitions, including first prizes at the Jeunesses Musicales and Ennio Porrino Piano Competitions as well as several chamber music competitions and the 3rd prize at the Vladimir Horowitz International Piano Competition.
A prize-winner of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition, Nikita Vaganov began his studies at the Gnessins’ State Music College with Vladimir Ferapontov, and later at the Musikhochschule Lübeck (Germany) with Reiner Wehle, at the Madrid Royal Conservatory with Adolfo Garcés and at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart with Norbert Kaiser. He has taken part in master-classes given by major clarinetists
including Sabine Meyer, Eduard Brunner, Vicente Alberola and Sergio Bossi.
Nikita is a prize-winner of several prestigious competitions, among them the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow), All-Russian Clarinet Competition (Moscow), the Possehl young performers’ competition (Lübeck) the Lions Club European Competition (Stuttgart)
Nikita has collaborated with various youth orchestras and festivals including the IRO International Youth Orchestra, the Baltic Youth Orchestra directed by Kristjan Jarvi, and the Oberstdorfer Musiksommer festival. He is a member of a Russian – German Academy since 2014 and performed as a chamber musician in the Beethoven Festival in Bonn (2016). Since 2017, he’s been a guest solo clarinet player in Les Dissonances Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2013 Nikita has been a soloist of the Mariinsky Orchestra clarinet section.
Vaganov also regularly gives masterclasses. He was a teacher in Mahler Summer Academy in Italy in 2018 and from 2019-2020, served as a guest clarinet teacher in Alberola MMCV Music Master Courses in Valencia.
Praised by the New York Times for her “lush, sizable and luminous voice”, world famous soprano Mlada Khudoley has performed at such illustrious theaters as Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Bolshoi Theatre, Mariinsky Theatre, the Royal Opera of Denmark, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Dusseldorf), the Stuttgart Staatsoper, the Leipzig Oper, the Graz Oper, the Teatr
Wielki (Warsaw), the Greek National Opera, the Teatro Massimo (Palermo), the Teatro Regio (Turin), opera houses in Los Angeles, Washington, Dallas, Minnesota, Vancouver (Canada), Tel Aviv, the Latvian National Opera and the Kazan and Yekaterinburg Opera Houses.
She has performed with such outstanding conductors of the present day as Valery Gergiev, Seiji Ozawa, Semyon Bychkov, Gianandrea Noseda, and the singers Placido Domingo, Anna Netrebko, Elina Garanca, Vladimir Galuzin, Bryn Terfel, among other.
Her repertoire includes Bellini’s Norma, Santuzza (Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana), Donna Anna, Donna Elvira (Mozart’s Don Giovanni), Manon (Puccini’s Manon Lescaut), Fevronia (Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh), Strauss’ Salome (Salome) and Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos), Tchaikovsky’s Lisa (The Queen of Spades), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Verdi’s Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Aida, Abigaile (Nabucco), Violetta (La traviata), Wagner’s Sieglinde (Die Walkure), Senta (Der Fliegende Hollander), Elisabeth (Tannhauser) among others.
Stefano Carlini is a violist, conductor and Professor of Viola at the G. Verdi State Conservatory in Milan. He has
had a brilliant multi-faceted career as viola soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, opera orchestra conductor, professor, jury member, artistic director of Opera Giocosa Italiana, and researcher.
Stefano have been making television and radio recordings in many countries, such as Italy, Japan, Russian Federation, Germany and others. He has given masterclasses in viola, conducting and opera conducting in Russian Federation, Italy, Latvia, Great Britain.
Stefano Carlini is part of the organizing committee and artistic activist of the AIV (Italian Viola Society).