Competition Jury
ADRIAN SYLVEEN - ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Award-winning musician, Adrian Sylveen enjoys a performing career in the United States and Europe. He is a founder and artistic director of the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra (USA) and the Greve Opera Academy and Chamber Music Festival (Italy). He also appears frequently with Teatro Lirico D’Europa (USA) and Camerata Gdynia (Poland).
Mr. Sylveen has conducted approximately 35 operatic titles and has an extensive orchestral and oratorio repertoire. He has conducted and performed concerts in the United States, Poland, Italy, Israel, Cuba, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and the former Soviet Union.
Between 2004-2024, Mr. Sylveen was a co-founder, artistic director, and the principal conductor of the Connecticut Lyric Opera.
He worked with such ensembles as Israeli Chamber Orchestra, Olsztyn Philharmonic, Elbląg Chamber Orchestra, Classical Orchestra of Piła (Poland), Associazione Il Contrappunto (Italy), Holguín Symphony Orchestra (Cuba), Orchestra da Camera di Greve-In-Chianti (Italy), Central Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra, the New Britain Chorale, Coro di teatro Garibaldi, Chór Akademii Staszica (Piła, Poland), among others.
A winner of many prizes in Europe and the United States, he received the American Council for Polish Culture Primus Inter Pares Award from the President of the Republic of Poland and received permanent US residence for “Extraordinary Abilities in the Arts”.
Mr. Sylveen holds Master of Music and Artist Diploma degrees from the Yale University School of Music; he is also a graduate of the Paderewski Music Academy in Poznan, Poland (diploma with distinction). During the school years, he participated in several international Festivals in Weimar, Łancut, Żagań, and others.
A dedicated music educator and community activist, Sylveen is on the faculty of the Virtuosi Music Academy and Summer Music Festival, Greve Opera Academy, and works with a community “Moniuszko” Choir.
Adrian Sylveen collaborated with many exceptional artists, such as Katia Riccarelli, Carl Tanner, Armando Ariostini, Laura Andreini, Giacomo Benedetti, Eckart Lorenzen, Luca Rinaldi, Theodore Arm, Brunilda Myftaraj, Jorge Pita Carreras, Steven Frederiks, Stefan Szkafarowsky, Neal Larrabee, Dmitri Novgorodsky, Rafael Lewandowski, Andre Anweiler, Martin Bresnik, Jadwiga Kotnowska, Marzena Diakun, Grzegorz Dabrowski, Daniel Borowski, Thomas Labadorf, Michael Gatonska, Volcan Orhon, Robert DeMaine, Erik Rousi, Jakub Polaczyk, and others. MORE
PHILIP SETZER
Violinist Philip Setzer, a founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and began studying violin at the age of five with his parents, both former violinists in the Cleveland Orchestra. He continued his studies with Josef Gingold and Rafael Druian, and later at the Juilliard School with Oscar Shumsky. In 1967, Mr. Setzer won second prize at the Marjorie Merriweather Post Competition in Washington, DC, and in 1976 received a Bronze Medal at the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Brussels.
He has appeared with the National Symphony, Aspen Chamber Symphony (David Robertson, conductor), Memphis Symphony (Michael Stern), New Mexico and Puerto Rico Symphonies (Guillermo Figueroa), Omaha and Anchorage Symphonies (David Loebel) and on several occasions with the Cleveland Orchestra (Louis Lane). He has also participated in the Marlboro Music Festival.
Mr. Setzer has been a regular faculty member of the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshops at Carnegie Hall and the Jerusalem Music Center. His article about those workshops appeared in The New York Times on the occasion of Isaac Stern's 80th birthday celebration. He also teaches as Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at SUNY Stony Brook and has given master classes at schools around the world, including The Curtis Institute, London's Royal Academy of Music, The San Francisco Conservatory, UCLA, The Cleveland Institute of Music and The Mannes School.
The Noise of Time, a groundbreaking theater collaboration between the Emerson Quartet and Simon McBurney--about the life of Shostakovich--was based on an original idea of Mr. Setzer's. In April of 1989, Mr. Setzer premiered Paul Epstein's Matinee Concerto. This piece, dedicated to and written for Mr. Setzer, has since been performed by him in Hartford, New York, Cleveland, Boston and Aspen. Recently, Mr. Setzer has also been touring and recording the piano trios of Schubert and Mendelssohn with David Finckel and Wu Han. MORE
JOANNA KURKOWICZ
Praised in Gramophone magazine for “disciplined virtuosity,” violinist Joanna Kurkowicz enjoys an active and versatile career as an award-winning soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and concertmistress. She has performed on many of the great concert stages of the world, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Boston and the Grosse Saal, Salzburg, and has appeared as a soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, the Jefferson Symphony, the San Luis Obispo Symphony, the New England String Ensemble, the Berkshire Symphony, the Poznan Philharmonic, the Polish National Radio Orchestra in Katowice and Warsaw, and others.
She has received awards from the Samuel Chester, Presser, Saint Botolph, Kosciuszko, and Olevsky Foundations, the Harvard Musical Association, the Irving McKlein International Competition, the Carmel and Coleman Chamber Music Competitions, and in Poland, the Henryk Wieniawski and Tadeusz Wronski International Competitions. She was a recipient of the New England Conservatory Outstanding Alumni Award in 2008.
Ms. Kurkowicz currently serves as concertmistress of the Boston Philharmonic and the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra, and previously held the same post for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Vermont Symphony. She was a member of the acclaimed Metamorphosen and Orpheus Chamber Orchestras. Since the fall of 2002 she has been Artist in Residence at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, recently joined the faculty at Tufts University, she served on faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music. An avid and sought-after chamber musician, she has collaborated with such eminent artists as Jaime Laredo, Charles Treger, Masuko Ushioda and Laurence Lesser . She was a founding member and Artistic Advisor of the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston and the Plymouth Chamber Music Festival. As a guest artist, she has participated in the Mozarteum Festival in Salzburg, the Ravinia Festival, Barge Concert Series (NY), the Asia Pacific Festival in Wellington, New Zealand, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, the Orford Music Festival, the EuroSilesia International Music Festival, International Music Academy Orpheus in Vienna, the Warsaw Music Gardens Festival and the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society. Respected pedagogue, Joanna Kurkowicz held masterclasses both in Europe and the US. MORE