Michael Lewin, Jury Chair

Mr. Lewin is one of America’s most foremost concert pianists, winning over audiences in 30 countries with playing of “majestic power and searing emotion.” (The London Times). His career was launched with top prizes in the Franz Liszt International Competition, the American Pianists Association Award and the William Kapell International Piano Competition. His recordings have won a Grammy Award and a Roundglass Music Award. He has appeared as orchestral soloist with the Netherlands Philharmonic, Cairo Symphony, China National Radio Orchestra, Bucharest Philharmonic, Youth Orchestra of the Americas, State Symphony of Greece, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and the Phoenix, Indianapolis, Miami, North Carolina, West Virginia, Nevada, New Orleans, Colorado, Guadalajara, and Puerto Rico Symphonies.

Jonathan Bass

Mr. Bass appears frequently throughout the United States as soloist and chamber musician. He has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall, and the North Carolina Symphony at the Appalachian Summer Music Festival. He has been featured on many radio programs throughout the country, including NPR’s "Performance Today". His solo and chamber music recordings have received high acclaim from Gramophone Magazine. A Steinway Artist, Bass gave his New York debut at Weill Recital Hall as the First Prize winner in the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition (1993). He performs frequently at Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall in Boston, and at Tanglewood. Internationally, he has performed in China, Israel, Japan, Poland, Spain, and Russia.

Hugh Hinton

Hailed for his aristocratic approach to music making (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and called an exceptionally fine interpreter of contemporary music (Boston Globe), pianist Hugh Hinton has performed throughout the United States and abroad, as a soloist, chamber musician and collaborative pianist. He frequently performs Chamber music with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Prelude and Community Chamber Concerts. His recordings have been released by Naxos, Etcetera, CRI, New World, Newport Classics and MMC labels. He is the winner of numerous competitions and awards and since 1993 has performed nationally with the contemporary music group Core Ensemble.

Isabella Li

Born in China, Isabella made her solo and orchestral debut at the age of eight and has since performed in cities around the world. She holds degrees in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers include José Ramos-Santana, Phyllis Lehrer, Fang Da Lei, and Qing Huang Wang. Many of her students have gone on to study at leading conservatories and universities such as The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Yale School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music, Peabody Institute, and Berklee College of Music. Some have become professional pianists, composers, and conductors

Yukiko Sekino 

Praised for her “thrilling, inspirational performance” (Florida Sun-Sentinel) and “elegance of line, leaping energy” (San Jose Mercury News), pianist Yukiko Sekino has forged a career that encompasses a wide range of interests. A soloist noted for her performances of Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Scriabin, she frequently collaborates in chamber music and performs some of the most challenging twentieth and twenty-first century works. Sekino is the Gold Medalist of the 2006 International Russian Music Piano Competition and a 2010 winner of the S&R Foundation’s Washington Award. An avid collaborative artist and a new music performer, Sekino was the pianist of the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas from 2005 to 2008.

Sergey Schepkin was praised by The Boston Globe for his “uncommon, almost singular capability and integrity.” He has concertized worldwide, from the United States to Europe to East Asia to New Zealand. The concert series and venues where he has appeared include the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; the Celebrity Series of Boston; Boston’s Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, and the Gardner Museum. Sanders Theater and Paine Hall at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C.; the LACMA and Maestro series in Los Angeles; the Rockport and Newport music festivals; London’s Steinway Hall and Proms at St Jude’s festival; National Concert Hall in Dublin; Sibelius Academy in Helsinki; Norwegian Music Academy in Oslo; Grand and Chamber Philharmonic  Halls in St. Petersburg; Hoam Art Hall in Seoul; and Sumida  Triphony Hall in Tokyo, among many others.

Roberto Poli is an Italian pianist who has appeared as a soloist, harpsichordist, chamber musician and conductor around the world in cities such as Boston, Brussels, Paris, San Salvador, Calgary, Dublin, New York, Rome, Tokyo, Vilnius, Zurich, and Seoul. In Italy, Mr. Poli studied with Giorgio Vianello at the Venice Conservatory, and with Boris Petrushansky at the Accademia Pianistica in Imola. After moving to the United States in 1998, he received a Master’s Degree and Artist Diploma from New England Conservatory of Music under the guidance of Russell Sherman.

Tim McFarland, a former student of Russell Sherman, performs frequently in the Boston area as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and as chamber music collaborator. He has premiered works by Robert Ceeley, Peter Lieberson, David Patterson, and Daniel Pinkham. Mr. McFarland is a Senior Lecturer of Performing Arts at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and serves as the Music Director of the Belmont Symphony Orchestra. He is a faculty member and former director of the New School of Music and is also an Affiliate Artist at MIT.