WALDEMAR WOJTAL (Poland) – President of the Jury
Waldemar Wojtal graduated with distinction from the class of Zbigniew Śliwiński at the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk. He completed post-graduate studies in Paris with Vlado Perlemuter and Suzanne Roche. He honed his skills in masterclasses given by György Sebők and Dieter Zechlin. He is a former grant-holder of the Fryderyk Chopin Society in Warsaw and a prize-winner of the Youth Stage in the Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk, the Young Musicians’ Festival in Gdańsk and the 2nd All-Poland Piano Competition in Warsaw.
He has performed in concert in Poland and abroad, including in France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, the USA and Ukraine.
The principal strand of his professional work is teaching. Since 1979, he has given a piano class at Gdańsk Music Academy. He also works with gifted pupils of secondary schools of music. His pupils have included many prize-winners of piano competitions.
He is a long-serving member of the Polish Children’s Fund, where he trains outstandingly talented young pianists selected from Polish music schools for their significant achievements in competition.
He works with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Centre for Artistic Education, including as a member of the Committee for Artistic Education, a juror of nationwide auditions run by those institutions and a leader of seminars for piano teachers.
He gives masterclasses at home and abroad. He has sat on the jury of national and international piano competitions and is also the initiator and organiser of the 1st Baltic International Piano Competition.
Since 1999, he has been head of the piano department at Gdańsk Academy of Music, and he has also served two stints as the academy’s vice-chancellor (1993–1999 and 2004–2005). It was under his tenure that the Music Academy moved into its new premises and construction work began on the new concert hall building.
He has been honoured with awards by the Minister of Culture, as well as receiving the Gold Cross of Merit, the Gloria Artis Medal for services to culture and the National Education Medal.
EDWARD AUER (USA)
Internationally acclaimed American pianist Edward Auer is celebrated for his profound artistry and a distinguished career spanning more than six decades. Born in New York City and raised in Los Angeles, he received his early musical training from Aube Tzerko, a protégé of the legendary Artur Schnabel. He later studied with Rosina Lhévinne at the Juilliard School and with Julius Katchen in Paris under a Fulbright Grant.
Auer’s international career was launched through notable successes in several of the world’s most prestigious piano competitions. In 1965, he became the first American to win a prize at the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, receiving Fifth Prize in the historic edition won by Martha Argerich. He was also a laureate of the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna, the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and received First Prize at the Concours Marguerite Long in Paris.
Throughout his career, Auer has performed in more than 30 countries across five continents, collaborating with such distinguished conductors as Zubin Mehta, Charles Dutoit, Herbert Blomstedt, Sergiu Comissiona, Riccardo Chailly, Robert Shaw, and Antoni Wit. He has appeared as soloist with numerous leading ensembles, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, RIAS Berlin Orchestra, and Orchestre National de France. His particularly close relationship with Poland has brought him to the country for more than 20 concert tours, during which he has performed in every major Polish city and with the country’s leading orchestras.
In addition to his international performing career, Auer devoted more than four decades to teaching at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he is now Professor Emeritus of Piano. He currently serves as Artist Faculty in Piano at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts. Through his teaching, master classes, and artistic mentorship, he has influenced generations of young pianists from around the world.
Auer’s deep commitment to the music of Chopin is also reflected in his ambitious multi-volume recording project devoted to the composer’s works. Writing in New York Concert Review, critic Harris Goldsmith praised Auer’s “eloquence and technical powers” and placed his interpretations alongside distinguished Chopin recordings by such artists as Arthur Rubinstein, Ivan Moravec, and Tamás Vásáry.
As co-founder of the Auer Foundation, Edward Auer continues his commitment to identifying, mentoring, and supporting outstanding young pianists. He is also frequently invited to serve on the juries of major international piano competitions, bringing to this work the insight of a distinguished performer, pedagogue, competition laureate, and lifelong advocate for young artists.
THÉRÈSE FAHY (Ireland)
Dublin-born Thérèse Fahy is one of Ireland’s foremost pianists, with an active performing and teaching career in Ireland and abroad. She has performed extensively throughout Europe and the United States, appearing in recitals, with orchestras, and on RTÉ and BBC broadcasts.
Her international engagements have included recitals, lecture-recitals and masterclasses in France, the UK, Italy, Poland, Spain, Portugal, the USA, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Israel, Ethiopia and Ireland. She has also served on juries for major international piano competitions, including those in Dublin, Manchester, the Baltic region and Italy.
Thérèse is particularly renowned for her performances of French music. She is the only professional Irish pianist specialising in French repertoire and has performed the complete solo piano works of Debussy. She also recorded the RTÉ Lyric FM documentary The Snow is Dancing on Debussy’s life and piano music. Her performances of Olivier Messiaen’s piano music have earned particular recognition, including the Irish premieres of Réveil des oiseaux and Visions de l’Amen.
In 2014, she received an Arts Council Music Project Award for Handprint, a collection of six newly commissioned piano works for small hands by leading Irish composers. The project was premiered at New Music Dublin and later recorded and broadcast by RTÉ Lyric FM.
In 2018, supported by another Arts Council Music Project Award, she created Ireland’s Tombeau to Debussy, a festival presented in Dublin and Paris featuring seven world premieres of Irish works inspired by Debussy alongside his music. She also performed at Debussy’s birthplace near Paris.
In November 2019, the French Government awarded Thérèse Fahy the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
Recent highlights include performances in the United States and Ireland, a Steinway Artists’ Recital in Tampa, a concert celebrating the reopening of Debussy’s birthplace, a recital of music by Mélanie Bonis at the Finding a Voice Festival, and the launch of The Paris Piano at Dublin’s Hugh Lane Gallery.
A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and a former Fulbright, French Government and Italian Government scholar, Thérèse Fahy is Professor of Piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, where she was also Director of Chamber Music for ten years. Her students have won prizes and reached finals in numerous international competitions, including those in Shanghai, Hamamatsu, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Bonn and Brussels.
BERND GOETZKE (Germany)
Bernd Goetzke was accepted at the Hanover University of Music and Theater at the age of 13 and studied with Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. From 1969 to 1977, he studied with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, who described Goetzke as his last student. He became a professor at the Hanover University in 1982. There, he was head of the solo piano programme for 30 years and founded an Institute for Highly Gifted Children in 2000, the first of its kind in Germany.
He teaches a large class of young pianists, many of whom have won major international prizes and embarked on promising careers. These include, among others, first prizes in the German Music Competition in Berlin, the Busoni Competition in Bolzano, and competitions in Aachen, Val Tidone, Monza, Pontoise, Kyiv and Manchester, the Grieg Competition in Oslo/Bergen, the Beethoven Competition in Bonn, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the Van Cliburn Competition, the Santa Cecilia Competition in Porto, and the Enescu Competition in Bucharest.
In addition to his university work, Bernd Goetzke gives masterclasses worldwide and is often invited to international competitions as a jury member. In Positano, Italy, he continued the Beethoven courses founded by Wilhelm Kempff and Alfred Cortot for several years.
He describes Beethoven and Debussy as the two “focal points” of his repertoire. This is expressed, among other things, in his translation of around 500 letters from Debussy into German, published in 2018.
KATARZYNA POPOWA-ZYDROŃ (Poland)
A Polish pianist of Bulgarian origins. She graduated with distinction from Zbigniew Sliwiński’s piano class at the State College of Music in Gdańsk (now the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music) in 1973. She completed her postgraduate studies under Alexander Jenner at the Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna.
She is a laureate of national and international competitions, including the Concorso Pianistico Internazionale ‘Alessandro Casagrande’ in Terni, Italy, in 1975. That same year, she was awarded a distinction at the 9th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.
She has been involved in teaching for many years. Having previously taught piano at the Gdańsk Academy of Music, she is currently a professor at the music academies in Poznań and Bydgoszcz. She gives masterclasses at home and abroad (France, Germany, Ireland, Bulgaria, Japan, China, Vietnam and the US, among others). Her students have won top prizes at piano competitions in Poland and abroad, including Rafał Blechacz, winner of the 15th Fryderyk Chopin International Piano Competition in October 2005.
She has been invited many times to sit on the jury of national and international competitions (in 2015 and 2021 she chaired the jury of the International Chopin Competition). At the same time, she pursues a concert career, performing with orchestra and solo in Poland and abroad, and also with vocalists, violinists and string quartets. She records for CD Accord and the Fryderyk Chopin Institute.
For her public service work, she was awarded the ‘Duke Mściwoj Medal’ by Gdansk City Council. In 2004 she received the National Education Commission Medal, then in 2005 the ‘Gloria Artis’ silver medal for services to culture and the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.