Jury

A doctor of musicology and the winner of four first prizes at the Conservatoire National de Musique et de Danse in Paris (music history, aesthetics, pedagogy and musicology), Emmanuel Hondré is the head of the concerts and shows department at the Philharmonie de Paris. He previously served as the music editor at the Cité de la Musique (1997), as well as the head of the cultural service at the Musée de la Musique (2002) and the production manager at the Cité de la Musique and Salle Pleyel (2005). Every year, he currently puts together a season of 500 concerts in this complex of five halls: it is a themed season open to all music genres, intending to make music more democratic. He is also regularly invited to work with young professionals to help them prepare for a career in music (Paris, Lyon, Saint-Étienne, Geneva, Moscow, Amsterdam and Shanghai). He is a member of various expert panels aimed at exchanging musical projects, including at the Diaphonique Franco-British fund for contemporary music (London), the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles d’Île-de-France (DRAC) – musical commission, the French-American Cultural Exchange (New York), and Impuls – the Franco-German fund for contemporary music (Berlin). Last but not least, he is regularly invited to be a jury member at international competitions: International Competition of Opera Singers – Galina Vischnevskaïa Opera Centre in Moscow (2012), Saint Petersburg International Competition of Opera Singers (2015), Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition (2016 & 2018), Lyon International Chamber Music Competition (2017), Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition (2019), and Beijing Composition Competition (2019).

Francesco Dillon (born in Turin, 1973) already has a brilliant international career to his credit, characterised by the originality and variety of the repertoire that he has embraced. As a soloist he has performed on such prestigious concert stages as the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Herkulessaal of Munich, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Jordan Hall in Boston and the Colon Theatre of Buenos Aires, with such orchestras as the Italian National Radio Orchestra (RAI), the Southwest Radio Symphony Orchestra of Stuttgart, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Vienna, the Orchestra of the Colon Theatre, Ensemble Resonanz, Oulu Sinfonia Finland, and the Tuscany Regional Orchestra (ORT). Most recently he made an acclaimed debut with the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Scala, Milan, conducted by Susanna Mallki.
Having graduated in Florence under the guidance of Andrea Nannoni, he continued his studies with Anner Bijlsma, Mario Brunello, David Geringas and Mstislav Rostropovich, thereafter studying composition with Salvatore Sciarrino.
In 1993 he was one of the founders of the Quartetto Prometeo, a chamber group of international acclaim and winner of numerous prizes (Prague Spring, ARD Munich, Bordeaux) and recently honoured with the Leone d’Argento award of the Biennale Musica of Venice. Dillon is also a stable member of the Alter Ego ensemble which is regularly invited to the major contemporary music festivals around the world. His passion for chamber music has led to performances with musicians such as Irvine Arditti, Mario Brunello, Giuliano Carmignola, Piero Farulli, David Geringas, Veronika Hagen, Alexander Lonquich, Enrico Pace, Jean-Guihen Queyras.
The profound interest in contemporary music which he has always cultivated has led to solid collaborations with the major composers of our time: Gavin Bryars, Ivan Fedele, Luca Francesconi, Stefano Gervasoni, Philip Glass, Vinko Globokar, Sofija Gubaidulina, Jonathan Harvey, Toshio Hosokawa, Giya Kancheli, Alexander Knaifel, Helmut Lachenmann, David Lang, Alvin Lucier, Arvo Pärt, Henri Pousseur, Steve Reich, Fausto Romitelli, Kaija Saariaho, Salvatore Sciarrino and with cult experimental musicians such as Matmos, and Pansonic, William Basinsky and John Zorn.

Dillon’s performances have been transmitted by such important broadcasters as the BBC, RAI, ARD, Radio France, ORF, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and WDR.
He has recorded for the ECM label, as well as Kairos, Ricordi, Sony, Stradivarius, Die Schachtel and Touch.
He recently recorded for the first time, Variations by Salvatore Sciarrino which received the Diapason d’Or prize, and Ballata by Giacinto Scelsi, both with the Italian National Radio Orchestra (RAI). As a duo with the pianist Emanuele Torquati, he has brought out three CDs of rare music of Schumann and the complete works for cello by Franz Liszt for Brilliant Classics.
Along with his concert activity there have been teaching experiences in institutions such as the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Royal College in London, Liszt Academy in Budpest, Premio Borciani/Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia, School of Music of Fiesole, Tokyo music University, the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow, the Pacific University in California, Untref-Buenos Aires, Manchester University.
From 2010 he has been artistic director of the season of contemporary music Music@villaromana in Florence.

Violinist Anthea Kreston leads a varied and interesting life. She was the first American violinist to be a member of a major European string quartet, Germany’s Artemis Quartet,
and enjoys a robust international touring and recording career. She was Professor at the Universität der Künste Berlin and Master Teacher at the Queen Elizabeth Chapel in Brussels.
An avid writer, she has written for major classical publications such as Strings and Chamber Music Magazine, as well as penning a weekly music blog for Slipped Disc which clocked in as one of the top-5 most read music blogs internationally. She has produced and hosted a variety of podcasts (notably a series of podcasts for the Pierre Boulez Saal for their Quartet Festival), and curated the Fortnightly Music Book Club, which brought music lovers, musicologists, performers and authors together for in-depth discussions.
She has an incredible husband and two funny and generous daughters. Her recent release on Warner Classics is Shostakovich Quartets and Piano Quintet with the Artemis Quartet and pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja won the Diapason d’Or.
The San Diego Reader said of her “…Anthea is a soloist of the Heifetz-Shaham-Vengerov caliber, whose musical instincts could make even a mere bagatelle thrill the soul and stir the senses to a frenzy.” She made her solo debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and performs frequently as a concertmaster, soloist and chamber musician. She is equally at home as the Director of the Majestic Chamber Music Series, as well as founder and Executive Director of the Inside Music Academy.
Anthea has won awards from Chamber Music America for her groundbreaking work with abused children and AIDS patients in Hartford, CT. Anthea holds a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Cleveland State University and a performance degree from the Curtis Institute of Music.

In 1977 Alexander Lonquich won the First Prize at the Casagrande Competition: since then he has given concerts in all the main musical centres of the world; he has collaborated with orchestra conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Ton Koopman, Emmanuel Krivine, Heinz Holliger, Sandor Vègh and many others. In the chamber music field, Alexander Lonquich collaborates with esteemed partners such as Nicolas Altstaedt, Vilde Frang, Joshua Bell, Isabelle Faust, Carolin Widmann and Jörg Widmann, to name a few. Alexander Lonquich has received numerous awards from Italian and international critics, such as the “Diapason d’Or” and the “Premio Abbiati” (as ‘best soloist’ in 2016).
In the role of conductor/soloist he collaborated with the Orchestra da Camera di Mantova, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilarmonie, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, the Filarmonica della scala, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale RAI and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Alexander Lonquich is a regular guest of internationally renowned festivals including Schubertiade, Lockenhaus, Mozartwoche Salzburg in Austria, Beethovenfest Bonn and Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspielen in Germany. Among the most relevant engagements outside Italy we mention collaborations with the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, the Münchener Kammerorchester, the Camerata Salzburg. Very active also in the recording field, his most recent publication (October 2018) is a double CD for the Alpha-Outhere label entitled “Schubert 1828” and containing the Sonatas D958, D959 and D960. Since 2014 Alexander Lonquich has been Principal Conductor of Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza. In 2013 he created, together with his wife Cristina Barbuti, ‘Kantoratelier’, a theatrical space where his favourite subjects – psychology, music and theatre – are studied and developed thanks to workshops, seminars and concerts.