Hastings International Piano is delighted to welcome an international jury of hugely respected pianists, conductors and orchestral leaders to the historic south coast.
Led by President of The Jury Professor Vanessa Latarche – Head of Piano at The Royal College of Music, the jury includes Paul Hughes (UK) – Director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Aisa Ijiri (Japan)– international pianist and Steinway Artist, Stanislav Ioudenitch (USA)—winner of the Gold Medal at Van Cliburn Piano Competition, Diana Ketler (Latvia) Pianist, Festival Director and Professor of Piano, Scott Dunn (USA), conductor, pianist and composer and Anthony Byrne (Ireland) international pianist and Professor of Piano at The Royal Irish Academy of Music. Find out more below.
AISA IJIRI
DIANA KETLER
Following her sensational debuts at the Tokyo Opera City (2010) and the Carnegie Hall, New York (2017), Aisa Ijiri has established herself as one of the award-winning concert pianists and has been described as, “a special talent whose European sophistication, fierce passion and poetic sentiment create an artistic atmosphere”- Record Geijutsu, Tokyo.
Born in Japan, Aisa made her European debut at the age of 15 as a concerto soloist at the Philharmonic Hall, Warsaw and as a recitalist at the Konserthuset, Stockholm. Since then, she has given regular recitals at many prestigious venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre, Cadogan Hall, Fairfield Halls, St. John’s Smith Square, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. George’s Bristol, Kioi Hall (Tokyo), Izumi Hall (Osaka) and at international music festivals including Wimbledon International Music Festival, Three Choirs Festival, Lichfield Festival, and Chopin Festival in Duzniki-Zdroj. Her concerts have been broadcast on Classic FM, BBC1 Television, BBC Radio 3, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), Radio Beograd, N1 TV and CNN Worldwide. In 2009 Aisa was awarded a “Cultural Encouragement Award” by the Mayor of Shiga in Japan as the youngest ever winner.
As a concerto soloist, Aisa has performed piano concertos with the Osaka Century Symphony Orchestra (Conductor: Kentaro Kawas and Ken Hsieh), Orchestra Musica Celeste (Conductor: Yasuo Shinozaki), Orion Orchestra (Conductor: Toby Purser), Bushey Symphony Orchestra (Conductor: George Vass), Salonorchester Alt Wien (Conductor: Udo Zwölfer) among others. In 2019, she gave an acclaimed performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5 ‘Emperor’ with the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Sachio Fujioka.
As a recording artist, Aisa released her piano solo albums “Pilgrimage” and “Ailes d’amour” on N.A.T Records, and piano works by Llywelyn ap Myrddin “SAKURA” and “PRELUDES” on WW Records which recordings were chosen for a highlight feature on BBC Radio 3. In 2019, Aisa performed as a soloist with the Prague Symphonic Ensemble for the world premiere of a new single ‘Until We Meet Again’ written by EMMY nominated Hollywood composer Martin Tillman. In 2020, a piano solo piece ‘Aisa: Sand, Silk and Love’, was dedicated to her by Schott Music composer Melanie Spanswick and was published by Schott Music in the Schott Edition Series. Aisa is an official recording artist for ‘SPIRIO’ by Steinway & Sons.
Aisa has become a cover artist and has featured in many international television series, feature films and publications such as CNN Style, Steinway & Sons Film, Steinway & Sons Magazine, Lark Music, Diplomany & Commence and UN Women Opinion Leader among others. The feature film “AISA”, directed by Marco della Fonte, produced by Lost Pictures Ltd which Aisa played the starring role of won the Best Experimental Award at the Hollywood Boulevard Film Festival 2020.
Aisa is a graduate of the Kungliga Musikhögskolan, Stockholm (Bachelor’s Degree), Guildhall School of Music & Drama (Master’s Degree) and the Royal College of Music, London (Artist Diploma) with distinction. In 2018, she was appointed Honorary Representative for the Royal College of Music, London.
Aisa is an official Steinway Artist, the Artistic Director of the Tokyo International Piano Association and the Montecatini Piano Festival and Professor of Piano at the Euro Arts Academy.
“The pianist was astonishingly refined and tasteful Diana Ketler. I have rarely heard such delicacy, yet she also rose to occasions of great power easily. Her phrasing was exquisite and myriad colours were summoned from the piano.” New Concert Review
A native of Riga, Latvia, Diana Ketler began her piano studies at the age of 5, encouraged by both her parents.
Her father, a well-known operatic baritone, and her mother, a choral conductor and singing teacher, were her early inspiration and source of her love for the opera and for the musical collaboration with other artists.
She studied at the Jazeps Vitols Latvian Music Academy, at the Mozarteum University for Music in Salzburg and at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Diana started performing as a soloist at an early age, giving her debut with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra at the age of 11, under the baton of Vassily Sinaisky.
Diana’s concert life as a soloist and chamber musicians has taken her to many great musical centres of Europe, Asia and the USA. She performed at the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Gasteig and Prinzregententheater in Munich, Carnegie Hall in New York, Kennedy Centre in Washington, Wigmore Hall in London, Bridgwater Hall in Manchester, Suntory Hall and Opera City Hall in Tokyo, Osaka Symphony Hall, Konzertgebouw in Amsterdam, Bozar in Brussels, Atheneum in Bucharest, Teatro La Fenice in Venice.
Diana is a regular guest at the prominent international festivals, such as Lucerne, Gstaad and Boswil Festivals in Switzerland, Kuhmo Festival in Finland, Rheingau Festival and Mosel Festival in Germany, Wiener Musikwochen and Carintischer Sommer in Austria, Spoletto Festival in Italy, Oxford Chamber Music Festival.
Diana’s performances have been broadcast on TV and Radio, including BBC Radio 3, Classic FM, Bavarian Radio, NHK in Japan, ORF in Austria, Latvian Radio, Radio France International.
Diana has recorded six award-winning CDs with the Solo Musica in Munich.
Diana has a keen interest in contemporary repertoire and has worked with composers such as Peteris Vasks, Arvo Part, Franco Donatoni, Gyorgy Ligeti. Argentinian composer Marcelo Nisinman and Latvian Santa Ratniece have written pieces for her. Diana loves chamber music and has collaborated with many wonderful artists, including Wolfram Christ, Konstantin Lifschitz, Frans Helmerson, Gilles Apap, Sasha Zemtsov, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Mihaela Martin, Boris Brovtsyn, Alina Pogostkina, Philippe Graffin, Wilde Frang, Juliane Banse, Marc Padmore and many others.
Diana is a founding member of the Ensemble Raro, one of the most exceptional and highly acclaimed chamber groups in Europe.
Diana has always had a passion for new projects. Together with a violist Razvan Popovici she founded the Chiemgauer Musikfruehling Festival in Bavaria, the 16 th edition of which was held in 2019; and the SoNoRo Festival in Bucharest, which in the last 14 years developed into one of the most exciting an important chamber music festivals of today. Diana is the Artistic Director of both Festivals.
Diana is a co-founder of an International Educational Chamber Music Programme Interferences, which takes place in Romania, Italy and Germany and awards scholarships to young talented musicians to study and perform together with their more experienced colleagues.
Diana is a Piano Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London and Chamber Music Professor at the Haute École de Musique in Geneva. Her students have performed internationally and achieved success in major competitions such as ARD in Munich and Hamamatsu in Japan.
Diana has given master classes in Norway, Italy, Latvia, Belgium, Japan, Switzerland, Spain and Germany.
Diana is a recipient of the Latvian Great Music Award, Latvia’s highest distinction in the field of classical music.
In 2016, Diana was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London.
In her spare time, Diana loves to read and she also writes poetry.
PAUL HUGHES
SCOTT DUNN
Paul Hughes joined the BBC in 1999 and is Director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and of the BBC Singers. A graduate of Trinity College of Music where he studied piano, composition and conducting, Paul Hughes came to the BBC following a number of key roles with The Academy of Ancient Music (General Manager), IMG Artists, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Chief Executive) and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra (General Manager).
Under his directorship, the BBC ensembles have toured the world, recorded extensively, expanded audiences live, on air and on social media, undertaken a wide range of innovative education and audience development projects and championed new music, new composers and new artists. Paul Hughes has been leading on the design of a new studio complex for the BBC ensembles he directs, which is currently under construction on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the site of the 2021 Olympic Games, and due to open in 2025.
While at the BBC Paul Hughes has attracted the widest range of international artist collaborators, making several key appointments and relationships with, amongst others, Sir Andrew Davis, Jiri Belohlavek, Sakarik Oramo, Semyon Bychkov, Oliver Knussen, Sofi Jeannin, Jules Buckley, Dame Judith Weir, John Adams, Mark Anthony Turnage and Brett Dean
A Governor of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for nine years, Paul has a passion for discovering and nurturing the next generation of musicians and audiences, and is a guest lecturer at several of the UK’s leading conservatoires. He is the recipient of honorary membership from Trinity College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the Royal College of Music and has recently been honoured by the Finnish government with the award of Knight First Class of the Order of the Lion, for services to Finnish music and musicians.
Paul Hughes is a regular juror for international competitions including the inaugural Evgeny Svetlanov Conducting Competition (2007), the Long Thibaud Crespin piano and violin competitions (2014 and 2015), the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (2018 and 2021), Concurso Frechilla Zuloaga 2021, the Hastings International Piano Competition (2022) and the Fitelberg International Conducting Competition (2023). In August 2021 Paul Hughes took part in the Fiskars. Summer Academy, mentoring 12 young conductors from around the world.
American conductor Scott Dunn has led the BBC, Los Angeles, St. Petersburg and Royal Philharmonics; the Vienna Radio (RSO) and BBC Concert Orchestras; the Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Sydney and Vancouver Symphonies; the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s; Orchestre National de France; and numerous other distinguished ensembles. A former assistant to Lukas Foss, Dunn is the current Associate Conductor of the LA Phil’s Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and previously held posts with Pittsburgh Opera, Glimmerglass Opera and New York City Opera.
Also a distinguished pianist and orchestrator, Dunn studied with the legendary Byron Janis and has concertized and recorded extensively.
As an Artistic Ambassador for the USIS Dunn introduced audiences in Eastern Europe and former states of the Soviet Union to such great examples of American repertoire as the Ives’ CONCORD SONATA and Carter SONATA.
He subsequently made his Carnegie Hall debut playing his own orchestration of Vernon Duke’s “lost” PIANO CONCERTO in C and he recently premiered his new arrangement of Duke Ellington’s NEW WORLD A-COMIN’ rhapsody for solo piano and jazz orchestra.
His 2022 engagements include presentations of Rufus Wainwright’s second opera HADRIAN at the Teatro Real in Madrid and Peralada Festival in Spain and recording of the THE RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT SONGBOOK featuring singer Claire Martin, the Royal Philharmonic and orchestrations, arrangements and music direction by Dunn.
STANISLAV IOUDENITCH
ANTHONY BYRNE
Known for a ravishing technique and his compelling musical conviction, pianist Stanislav Ioudenitch is part of the elite group of Cliburn Gold Medal winners, having taken home the Gold Medal at the 11th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In addition to the Cliburn Gold Medal, he was also the recipient of the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for Best Performance of Chamber Music. His profoundly warm and intelligent performances have won him prizes at the Busoni, Kapell, Maria Callas, and New Orleans competitions, among others.
Ioudenitch has performed at major international cultural centers including Carnegie Hall (New York), Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Gasteig (Munich, Germany), Conservatorio Verdi (Milan, Italy), Mariinsky Theater (St. Petersburg, Russia), International Performing Arts Center (Moscow, Russia), The Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory (Moscow, Russia), Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing, China), International Piano Festival of La Roque d’Anthéron (France), Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris, France), Bass Hall (Fort Worth, Texas), Jordan Hall (Boston, Massachusetts), Orange County Performing Arts Center (Costa Mesa, California), and the Aspen Music Festival (Aspen, Colorado).
Ioudenitch has had the privilege to perform with the conductors James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, Mikhail Pletnev, James DePreist, Günther Herbig, Asher Fisch, Stefan Sanderling, Michael Stern, Carl St. Clair, and Justus Franz, and with orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic, the Mariinsky Orchestra, National Symphony (Washington, D.C.), Rochester Philharmonic, Honolulu Symphony and the National Philharmonic of Russia. Chamber music partners have included the Takács, Prazák, Borromeo, and Accorda quartets.
His teachers have included Natalia Vasinkina, Dmitri Bashkirov, and Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Leon Fleisher, Rosalyn Tureck, William Grant Nabore at the International Piano Foundation in Como, Italy (the current International Piano Academy Lake Como). He subsequently became the youngest teacher ever invited to give master classes at the Academy and now serves as its Vice President.
Ioudenitch is continually invited to teach master classes and to serve as a jury member in piano competitions around the world.
Students include Behzod Abduraimov, Kenny Broberg, Andrey Gugnin, Yuntian Liu, among others.
Stanislav Ioudenitch is the founder of the International Center for Music at Park University (Kansas City) where he is an Artistic Director and professor of piano. He is also teaching at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Professor Anthony Byrne studied piano in Dublin with Marie Jones and John O’Conor. Anthony then continued his studies in Canada, New York and London with such internationally renowned teachers as Peter Katin, Adele Marcus and Alexander Kelly. Whilst studying in London Anthony became an associate of the Royal College of Music.
Anthony has given many recitals in Ireland, England, the US, Canada and Japan. In 1986 he made his London debut at the Purcell Room and made his Wigmore Hall debut in 1989. He has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra on numerous occasions and in July 1997, gave the Irish premier of Leroy Anderson’s piano concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra. He has recorded on the Naxos, Marco Polo label.
Anthony is a Senior Lecturer of Piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. In 2012 he was appointed Specialist External Keyboard Examiner at the Royal Conservatoire Scotland. He has also been appointed as a panel examiner to the RCS DMus degree in the RCS.. In June of 2016 he was appointed Specialist External Keyboard Examiner at the Royal College of Music, London.