Michael Lewin, Chairman of the Jury, studied at the Julliard School with Leon Fleisher, Irwin and Lillian Freundlich, Adele Marcus and Yvonne Lefebure. His concert career was launched with victories in the 1986 International Liszt Competition in the Netherlands, the 1983 American Pianists Association Beethoven Award and the 1982 William Kapell International Competition. He has performed with the Netherlands Philharmonic, the Cairo Symphony, Bucharest Philharmonic, Boston Pops and many orchestras in the USA and Latin America. He performs over 30 different piano concertos. Mr. Lewin is an active and sought-after chamber musician. His recordings of works by Griffes, Domenico Scarlatti, Liszt, Scriabin, Glazunov and Balakirev have received extraordinary critical praise. Mr. Lewin is the Chairman of the Boston Conservatory Piano Faculty.

Janice Weber graduated summa cum laude from the Eastman School of Music. She studied with Cecile Genhart, Eugene List and Nadia Reisenberg. She has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, and other leading orchestras in the USA. She has given recitals in the USA, Europe, and the Far East. The New York Times chose her third novel "Frost the Fiddler" as a Notable Book of the Year. She is a member of the piano faculty of the Boston Conservatory of Music and performs regularly in the chamber music series. Her recordings include works by Rachmaninoff, Ornstein, Griffes, Karg-Elert, and received the International Liszt Prize for her recording of the last Hungarian Rhapsody.

Roberto Poli was born in Venice, Italy, and began receiving piano lessons at the age of twelve from Giorgio Vianello. He graduated Summa cum Laude and Honors in piano performance from the Venice Conservatory of Music in 1993. He also studied with Phillipe Cassard, Alexander Lonquich, Boris Petruchansky, Roni Rogoff, and Russell Sherman. He received a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance with Distinction and Academic Honors and the Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music. He was a semifinalist in the 1998 Gina Bachauer and 2000 Esther Honens International Piano Competitions, Bronze Medal Winner in the Sanremo International Piano Competition, and First Prizewinner in the Arcangelo Speranza National Piano Competition. He has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, harpsichordist and conductor in Japan, Ireland, Canada, Italy, and the USA. The Boston Globe praised his playing as being “invariably beautiful”. His debut recording “Shall We Dance” was released in November 2002.

Max Levinson was born in the Netherlands and began playing the piano at the age of five. He graduated cum laude in English at Harvard University and completed his graduate studies with Patricia Zander at the New England Conservatory, receiving an Artist Diploma and the Gunther Schuller Medal. He was the first American to win the First Prize in the Dublin International Piano Competition. He has performed as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco, Colorado, Oregon, Detroit, San Antonio, Louisville, New World Symphonies, St Paul Chamber Orchestra and Boston Pops. He has given recitals in Ireland, Washington DC, London, Zurich, Paris, and regularly appears at Tanglewood and other music festivals around the world. He is an active chamber musician and collaborated with Pinchas Zuckerman, Richard Stoltzman, and the Tokyo Strong Quartet. He has received overwhelming critical acclaim for his two solo recordings on N2K Encoded Music. He is on the faculty of Brown University and the Boston Conservatory.

Nicolai Lomov began to play the piano at the age of three and entered the prestigious Mussorgsky State School for Gifted Children at the age of five. He made his debut at the age of fifteen with the Ekaterinburg Symphony, playing the Tchaikovsky 1st piano concerto. He studied at the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory and was awarded a Ph.D. degree. He has also played with the Moscow and Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestras. In 1990 he left behind a prominent concert and teaching career in Russia and emigrated to the United States. He has performed more than sixty solo recitals along the East Coast and Oklahoma. He has appeared at the Weill Carnegie Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, and Kaufman Centre in New York City, the Tsai Performance Center at Boston University, the Monadnock Virtuoso Series, the Longy School of Music, and many others. During 1992-1996 he was a soloist with the Newton and Nashua Symphony Orchestras and the New Hampshire Philharmonic. An acclaimed interpreter of Chopin, Liszt, Gershwin and Russian composers, he has produced fifteen CDs. He teaches advanced students at his studio in Westerly, Rhode Island.