Our Jury Members
Our jury members are Professor Vanessa Latarche (Head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music), Professor Murray McLachlan (Head of Keyboard at Chetham's School of Music), Professor Piotr Paleczny (Jury and prize winner in the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw), Lady Rose Cholomondley (President of the Chopin Society UK), Professor Deniz Gelenbe (Trinity Laban), Professor
Jianing Kong (Royal College of Music and Central Conservatory of Music in China) and Artist Director Artur Haftman (Prizewinner of 25 International Competitions)
Professor Vanessa Latarche
After studying at the Royal College of Music and completing her training in the USA and Paris, Vanessa was awarded many scholarships and prizes by international competitions.
Vanessa Latarche’s concert career has taken her to Europe, the USA and the Far East, as well as many festivals within the UK, including Cheltenham, Harrogate and Huddersfield. Her interest in Bach led to a performance of the complete 48 Preludes and Fugues at the Lichfield International Festival in 1992, the performances being given over four consecutive evenings. She has performed as a soloist with international orchestras and those in the UK including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra, working with many leading conductors. She is a Steinway Artist.
She has broadcast for over 30 years for BBC Radio 3 and has also broadcast extensively on the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4. She has been a juror for international competitions in China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Serbia, Italy, New Zealand, and Hong Kong and has adjudicated the national keyboard final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year, which was broadcast on BBC television. In 2007 she was an advisor to the BBC TV programme ‘Classical Star’.
Vanessa frequently travels to give masterclasses, to such institutions as Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Beijing Central Conservatory, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore, Tokyo College of Music, Seoul National University as well as to other UK conservatoires and specialist music schools She is an advisor to Lang Lang’s music school, Lang Lang Music World, in Shenzhen, China, where she formerly held the position of Vice-Chairman.
Since September 2005, Vanessa has been Head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music, having been previously a professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music for 14 years, where she was made an Honorary Associate in 1997.
A renowned pedagogue, with many international piano competition prize winners amongst her students, Vanessa was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, for outstanding services to music, an honour conferred on her by HRH Prince of Wales in May 2010. In September 2011, she was granted a Personal Chair at the RCM, which gave her the title of Chair of International Keyboard Studies. In 2017, as an extension to her keyboard faculty work, Vanessa was made the Associate Director for Partnerships in China, which involves managing the RCM’s collaborative work in China, particularly the RCM/SHCM Joint Institute in Shanghai.
Professor Piotr Paleczny
One of the most outstanding Polish pianists and professors, laureate of five international piano competitions.
He completed piano studies at the Frederick Chopin Music University in Warsaw in the class of prof. Jan Ekier. The opportunity of having artistic contact with Arthur Rubinstein and Witold Lutoslawski also had a huge impact on the final development of his artistic personality.
His success achieved at the 8th Frederick Chopin International Piano Competition opened to Piotr Paleczny the doors of many prestigious world concert halls. Receiving, in company of Garrick Ohlsson and Mitsuko Uchida - the Third Prize, the Special Prize for the best performance of a Polonaise and the Witold Małcużyński Prize his career, which the artist has enjoyed constantly until now performing concerts on all continents. He performed as a soloist with such prominent orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, Concertgebouw, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhaus, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, RAI, Santa Cecilia, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Argentina and Orquesta Nacional de España.
He gave concerts in prestigious concert halls including the Carnegie Hall, the Alice Tully Hall and the UN General Assembly Hall in New York, the Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Suntory Hall in Tokyo,
Berliner Philharmonie, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Musikverein in Vienna,
Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Royal Festival Hall in London and Festspielhaus in Salzburg.
He has held master classes in New York, Tokyo, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Fort Worth, Bordeaux, Paris, Seoul, Beijing, Brescia, Madrid, Amsterdam, Hamamatsu, Montevideo, Mexico City. He has gained a great recognition as a juror at the prestigious international piano competitions such as those organized in Warsaw (seven last editions of the Chopin Competition), Leeds, Montreal, Moscow (Tchaikovsky - in 2002 and in June, 2019), Paris, Tel Aviv, London, Cleveland, Geneve, Hamamatsu, Toronto, Tokyo, Takamatsu, Seoul, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Santander, Sendai, Taipei, Weimar, Manchester, Shezhen, Los Angeles, Hilton Head.
In July 2007, he led the Jury works at the prestigious piano competition in Cleveland, thus he was the first and only Pole invited to fulfill a function of Jury chairman at the USA international piano competitions.
On 5 November 2001, Piotr Paleczny was invited to be a soloist of the extraordinary Gala Concert
to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 1993 he has been Artistic Director of the world's oldest existing piano festival – the Duszniki International Chopin Piano Festival and since 2004 he also is the Artistic Director of the International Paderewski Piano Competition in Bydgoszcz.
The artist is honored with many superior and prestigious Polish and foreign states decorations, such as the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Mexican Order of the Aguila Azteca.
Lady Rose Cholmondeley
Rose Cholmondeley was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and attended the Arts Educational Trust School in London before going to the Royal College of Music where she obtained an ARCM. She received the Performers’ Diploma of the Conservatoire Rachmaninoff in Paris while studying with the Polish professor Constantin Schmaeling.
She was introduced to the Chopin Society in London by its then President, the eminent pianist Louis Kentner, and become its Chairman in 1985.
She has performed many times at Chopin’s birthplace Zelazowa Wola and in Łazienki Park, as well as at the Ostrogski Castle, home of the Chopin Museum.
Rose Cholmondeley has toured Poland, performed at the Chopin Festival in Antonin, and with the Krakow Philharmonic under conductor Jerzy Maksymiuk.
She has toured India, both with the cellist Anup Biswas and as soloist, and performed in four cities on the USA during the Chopin bicentenary in 2010 with actor Charles Grant, with whom she earlier gave over 20 concerts on the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the Assembly Rooms in 1998, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Chopin’s Visit to Scotland. This series won a Silver Pear award for the sponsors and the Chopin Society in a Government Partnering Scheme.
Other notable Chopin recitals with readings have taken place at Nohant (the home of George Sand) in France, and in the monastery at Valldemossa in Majorca, as well as many at Hatchlands Park, where Rose also inaugurated the restored Chopin Broadwood.
Rose Cholmondeley is an enthusiast for French music and has given all-French music recitals at the Salle Gaveau in Paris and the French Institute in London.
At Leighton House she gave an all-Schumann recital on the anniversary of Clara Schumann’s performance there, and took part in an all-Beethoven concert for the Beethoven Society of Europe.
As well as performing in London at the Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room and many times at the Polish Embassy, Rose Cholmondeley has given concerts in France, Holland, Belgium, and Germany, and has played on Polish, French and Scottish Radio.
Her work for the Chopin Society has involved the organising not only of the Society’s monthly concerts, but also of big fundraising Galas at venues including London’s Guildhall, Lancaster House and Strawberry Hill, amongst others.
In 1999 Rose Cholmondeley was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit by the President of Poland, and in the same year became acting President of the Chopin Society. In 2011 she was awarded the prestigious Gold Gloria Artis medal by the Polish Ministry of Culture, and in 2017 received the “Bene Merito” award from the Polish Ministry of Forgeigh Affairs.
This year, 2022, she was awarded an Honorary Master of Music degree from the University of Chester.
Rose is a Steinway Artist, a Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians.
Professor Deniz Arman Gelenbe
Deniz Arman Gelenbe has been hailed for her prodigious technique, compelling artistic personality and poetic interpretations. As a versatile artist, she is active as a performer, adjudicator and pedagogue internationally.
She has performed with the Japan Philharmonic, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Slovak Chamber Orchestra, North Carolina Symphony, the Presidential Orchestra of Ankara, and with several other orchestras in Turkey, the Philippines, Spain and USA. She has played solo recitals at Salle Gaveau in Paris, Tonhalle in Zurich, Wigmore Hall and St John’s Smith Square in London, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and in major cities in France, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Israel, Turkey and the Netherlands. She has performed in Europe and USA with the Haydn, Enesco, Alexander, Borromeo, Talich and Ciompi Quartets and performed in piano duo concerts with Charles Webb. In 1994, she founded the Arman Ensemble and the Arman Trio which performs regularly in Europe and the United States in chamber music series, festivals and prestigious venues including Carnegie Weill Hall and Wigmore Hall.
Deniz Gelenbe founded and directed the summer academies and chamber music festivals Semaines Musicales de Rouen and Semaines Musicales d’Orsay in France for eleven years, and founded the Chamber Arts Series in 1998 and the Schubertiad Series in 2001 in Orlando, USA.
She has recorded world premiere of Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco’s chamber music for Albany Label, Erkin and Kodalli for Hungaroton, Dvorak and Saint Saens for Arcobaleno, Dvorak and Shostakovich for Mudician’s Showcase and Schubert and Beethoven for Akmuzik/EMI labels.
She has adjudicated the International Chamber Music Competition in Paris, BBC Young Artist Competition, Windsor international Piano Competition and Hastings International Piano Competition in UK, Chopin Competition in Marianbad, the Chech Republic, International Piano Competition at Gnessin Academy in Moscow, Santa Cecilia International Piano Competition in Porto, Portugal, and in China, Tunisia, in Dallas, Texas, among others.
As a sought after pedagogue, she is invited regularly to give masterclasses in several cities in USA, France, The Netherlands, Italy, UK, Spain, China, Russia, Japan, Turkey, and Malaysia. She taught at Dartington, and Chethams summer schools, and at Shanghai International Piano festival and Academie International de Nice.Her students have been successful in several national and international competitions and perform at prestigious venues as Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall and King’s Place among others, and hold academic positions in various countries.
A native of Turkey, Deniz Arman Gelenbe holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Science degrees from the Juilliard School. Her teachers included, Cecile Genhart, Adele Marcus and Gyorgy Sandor.
Formerly Artist-in-Residence and Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Deniz Gelenbe joined Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in October 2003. She was Head of Piano and Keyboard Department 2007- November 2015. She is Professor of Piano at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London, and has taught at Schola Cantorum in Paris.
Professor
Jianing Kong
Chinese pianist Jianing Kong has performed to great critical acclaim throughout the UK, Continental Europe, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. He is a prizewinner of many of the most prestigious international piano competitions such as the 2008 Tunbridge Wells International Young Concert Artist Competition, 2009 Leeds International Piano Competition, 2013 Valsesia International Piano Competition, 2014 Scottish International Piano Competition, and the 2015 Santander Piano Competition. He was a finalist at the 2016 Sydney International Piano Competition, where also won the Ignaz Friedman best semi-final recital prize and the best Mozart concerto prize.
Jianing gave his London debut in 2003, performing Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Purcell Symphony Orchestra at the Duke’s Hall (Royal Academy of Music). Since then, he has given performances at festivals and major venues across the U.K. and the European continent including Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Purcell Room, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. John’s Smith Square, St. James’ Piccadilly, Draper’s Hall, Steinway Hall (London), Brighton Festival, Chipping-Campden Festival, Leeds Town Hall, Mitchell Library (Glasgow), Gasteig (Munich), Salle Cortot (Paris), Bechstein Centrum (Frankfurt) and the Bolshoi Hall (Moscow Conservatoire).
As a concerto soloist, Jianing has appeared with the Halle Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Royal de Chambre Wollone, Orquesta Sinfónica de Radiotelevisión Espanõla, Scottish National Symphony Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Dominican Republic. In 2008, Jianing gave the world-premiere of Harris Kittos’ Vessel Tale in collaboration with the RCM Sinfonietta, and he was also invited to perform Beethoven’s Triple Concerto under Paul Daniel at the Royal Festival Hall, as part of the Purcell School’s Fifty Years Anniversary Gala concert.
In the pre-pandemic season of 2018-19, Jianing gave several much-acclaimed tours in Spain, performing in major concert venues in Madrid, Seville, Córdoba, Santander, Bilbao, as well as a highly successful tour in New Zealand. In 2020. He also embarked on an epic project of recording the complete Beethoven sonatas for the commemoration of composer's 250th birth Anniversary.
During covid-19 period, Jianing made several visits back to his home country, giving performances in all the leading concert halls of the countries such as the National Performing Centre in Beijing, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Concert hall, Qintai Concert hall in Wuhan, Xinghai Concert hall in Guangzhou; as well as appearing as soloist in concerto performances with Mastro Lü Jia, James.P.Liu, Yuan Ding, to name but a few. Jianing had brought live music to many cities during this difficult time and a much wider audiences had becoming drawn to his playing. Future visits include a major concert tour in 2022-23.
Jianing first studied at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou and was offered a full scholarship to study at the Purcell School in 2002, where he worked with the legendary British pianist Ronald Smith. He went on to study at the Royal College of Music, graduating in 2011 with both BMus, MMus degrees as well as the prestigious Artist Diploma. His teachers at the RCM included Ruth Nye, Gordon Fergus-Thompson, and Dmitri Alexeev. He also received regular coaching and mentoring from the renowned Chinese pianist Fou Ts’ong.
Apart from a busy performing schedule, Jianing also enjoyed teaching and working with the younger generations of musicians. He joined the piano faculty at the Purcell School in 2011; and in 2018, he was appointed Professor of Piano at Royal College of Music, London, the first Chinese to hold such a position. From September 2023, Jianing is delighted to join the keyboard faculty at the Central Conservatory of Music in China.
Professor Murray McLachlan
‘Murray McLachlan is a pianist with a virtuoso technique and a sure sense of line. His timing and phrasing are impeccable, and his tone-full but unforced in the powerful passages, gentle and restrained in the more lyrical- is a perpetual delight’ (BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE)
Since making his professional debut in 1986 at the age of 21 under the baton of Sir Alexander Gibson, Murray McLachlan has consistently received outstanding critical acclaim. Educated at Chetham’s School of Music and Cambridge University, his mentors included Ronald Stevenson, David Hartigan, Ryszard Bakst, Peter Katin and Norma Fisher.
His recording career began in 1988 and immediately attracted international attention. Recordings of contemporary music have won numerous accolades, including full star ratings, as well as ‘rosette’ and ‘key recording’ status in the Penguin Guide to CDs, and ‘Disc of the month’ and ‘Record of the month ‘in ‘Music on the Web’ and ‘The Herald’. McLachlan’s discography now includes over forty commercial recordings, including the complete sonatas of Myaskovsky and Prokofiev, the six concertos of Alexander Tcherepnin, the 24 Preludes and Fugues of Rodion Shchedrin, Ronald Stevenson’s ‘Passacaglia on DSCH’ the major works of Kabalevsky, Khatchaturian and the complete solo piano music of Erik Chisholm. His most recent releases feature British Music: In 2020 he recorded for Naxos the complete piano music of Edward Gregson and in 2019 for SOMM he the Ruth Gipps Piano Concerto with the RLPO. Both issues have received international critical acclaim and been broadcast several times on BBC Radio Three.
McLachlan’s repertoire includes over 40 concertos and 25 recital programmes. He has performed the complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle seven times, as well as the complete piano music of Brahms. He has given first performances of works by many composers, including Martin Butler, Ronald Stevenson, Charles Camilleri, Michael Parkin and even Beethoven! He has appeared as soloist with most of the leading UK orchestras. His recognition has been far-reaching, bringing invitations to perform on all five continents. At the same time, he continues to give numerous concerts and master classes in the UK.
McLachlan teaches at the Royal Northern College of Music and at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester where he has been Head of Keyboard since 1997. He is the founder of the Manchester International Concerto competition for young pianists as well as the Founder/Artistic Director of the world famous Chetham’s International Summer school and festival for Pianists, Europe’s largest summer school devoted exclusively to the piano.
Murray McLachlan is past editor of the two EPTA (European Piano Teachers’ Association) magazines ‘Piano Journal’ and ‘Piano Professional’. Having been chair of EPTA since 2007, in 2021 he was made Vice President. In 2013 the University of Dundee awarded him an honorary doctorate for outstanding services to music. As well as performing and teaching, he is well known internationally for his numerous articles on Piano technique and repertoire. This includes extended columns which have appeared in ‘International Piano’ ‘Pianist’ and ‘Piano’ Magazines. His three books on piano playing ‘Foundations of technique’, ‘Piano Technique in Practice’ and ‘The Psychology of Piano Technique’ have been widely distributed and are published by Faber Music.
Artistic Director
Artur Haftman
Artur Haftman is an internationally renowned concert pianist, widely acclaimed for his exceptional artistry and profound interpretation of Chopin's compositions, as acknowledged by music critics on a global scale. In the review for The Boston Musical Intelligencer, David Moran expressed his awe at the exquisite and mellifluous sound, along with the captivating approach Artur Haftman brings to his performances, comparable to the remarkable impact Murray Perahia had over four decades ago.
Born in Poland, Artur Haftman's passion for music was kindled under the guidance of his mother, Marzena Haftman, also a pianist herself. At the age of six, he embarked on his piano journey under the tutelage of Ewa Kubiak-Kubacka and Jolanta Reszelska, culminating in his debut performance with the Koszalin Youth Philharmonic Orchestra when he was merely eight years old.
Since his noteworthy orchestral debut, Artur has garnered a stellar reputation through triumphs in over 25 esteemed international competitions. Noteworthy achievements include securing prizes such as the Virtuosite II category in the Concours International De Piano Paris – ST. Maur Des Foses, alongside a prestigious accolade from the publishing house Combre in Paris in 2006. Furthermore, he achieved first place at the 7th Juliusz Zarebski International Music Competition in Lomianki/Warsaw in 2007, the 7th International Chopin Competition in Narva, Estonia in 2010, the 19th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition for Children and Youth in Szafarnia in 2011, the 18th International Piano Competition in Palma de Mallorca in 2011, the International Chopin Piano Competition in Rzeszów in 2012, the International Music Competition "Musicaclassica" in Moscow, the "Gold Parnas" (The grand prize) at the International Piano Forum "Bieszczady bez granic" in Sanok in 2013, and the Laureate title at the 47th Polish Piano Festival in Slupsk in 2013. He has also been recognized with notable awards such as the prizewinner at the "Cesar Franck International Piano Competition" in Brussels in 2014, III International Piano Competition "Villa de Xàbia" in 2015. He was the esteemed recipient of the Gary and Eleanor Brass Scholarship at the Royal College of Music for the academic years 2019-2020, as well as the Carnwath Piano Scholarship, an honor exclusive to him among all pianists in the entire United kingdom for the period of 2020-2021.
While currently based in London, Artur Haftman's musical pursuits extend far beyond, as he captivates a global audience with his extraordinary aptitude and remarkable talent. His solo recitals have enraptured listeners across a diverse range of countries, including the United Kingdom, Poland, France, Lithuania, Italy, the United States, Slovakia, and Germany. He is highly honoured to have esteemed audience members including, HRH Duke of Kent, HRH Princess Alexandra, HRH Prince Michael of Kent, HRH Princess Michael of Kent, HRH Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia, , Former Ambassador of Poland to the United Kingdom Arkady Rzegocki, Lord Frederick Windsor, Lady Campbell and more.
Moreover, Artur actively participates as a jury member in the London International Chopin Competition and serves as the Artistic Director of SIMA Classics, a preeminent classical music education company. This summer, Artur is scheduled to conduct a Masterclass and perform in Seoul, Korea, further enriching the global stage with his exceptional musicality.