Jury | kfwieniawski

COMPETITION JURY

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. MORE

ADRIAN SYLVEEN

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 and 2024, Mr. Sylveen was a co-founder, artistic director, and the principal conductor of the Connecticut Lyric Opera.

He worked with such ensembles as the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, the Olsztyn Philharmonic, the Elbląg Chamber Orchestra, the 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.

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. MORE

HONORARY FINAL ROUND JURY

EUGENE DRUCKER

Eugene Drucker is a founding member of the Emerson String Quartet and Music Director of the Bach at New Year’s concerts for The Berkshire Bach Society. He has appeared as a solo violinist with the orchestras of Montreal, Brussels, Antwerp, Liege, Hartford, Richmond, Omaha, Jerusalem, and the Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Aspen Chamber Symphony, and the Las Vegas Philharmonic. A graduate of Columbia University and the Juilliard School, he served for two years as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra, which featured him several times as a soloist.

He made his New York debut as a Concert Artists Guild winner in the fall of 1976, after having won prizes at the Montreal Competition and the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He has recorded the complete unaccompanied works of Bach (Parnassus Records), the complete sonatas and duos of Bartók (Biddulph Recordings), and (with the Emerson Quartet) works ranging from Bach and Haydn to contemporary repertoire, mostly for Deutsche Grammophon. MORE

PRZEMYSLAW STANISLAWSKI

Przemysław Stanislawski was born in Poznań, where he began his musical education at age six. He graduated in music theory from the Academy of Music in Poznań and in symphonic-opera conducting from the Fryderyk
Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw under Prof. Henryk Czyż.

In 1983, Stanislawski founded the male vocal ensemble "Affabre Concinui" and served as its artistic director until 1992. He worked as
an assistant conductor at the Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz (1986–1991), where he also established the Polish Chamber Choir.
As a conductor, he has performed internationally—including in Belgium,
France, Spain, Japan, and the USA—with orchestras such as Camerata Academia, Warsaw Chamber Orchestra, Polish Sinfonietta, and various Polish philharmonics. Notable career highlights include conducting G.
Ligeti’s Requiem at the Flanders Music Festival (1991), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Nantes (1992), representing Poland at EXPO 92 in
Seville, and performing Bach and Stravinsky at the Kyoto International Music Festival (1993).

Since October 1993, he has taught at the Stanislaw Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk, directing cantata-oratorio and opera ensembles, and teaching symphonic-opera conducting since 2017. He has prepared
dozens of opera and oratorio premieres, including several Polish and world premieres by composers like Handel, Hasse, Kassern, Menotti, and Rimsky-Korsakov.