Jury
Andreas Weber

Andreas Weber began his pianistic education at the Music University of Cologne with Prof. Karin Merle and continued with Prof. Hans Leygraf at the University of Music in Salzburg. His gives concerts as a soloist and as chamber musician in Europe and Asia, i.a. with the Trio Cartellieri and with the Violinists Luz Leskowitz and Albert Fischer. Television recordings in Austria, Korea and China. He holds many Masterclasses in US, Japan, Russia, Korea, China, Thailand, Australia, Germany, Croatia and Belgium and is
member of juries in national and international piano competitions in Germany, Austria, Croatia, Singapore, Russia, China and Korea. He has made CD recordings with the Cellist Hanna Spielbüchler (Brahms, Schubert and Franck) as well with the Violinist Albert Fischer (Mozart, Brahms, Schubert) and with the Trio Cartellieri (Turina, Takacs, Piazzolla)
Since 2002 Andreas Weber is professor for piano at the University Mozarteum and since 2005 he is the head of the Leopold-
Mozart-Institute for highly talented young students and is promoting young talents at national and international level. Concert tours in Japan, Russia and China with the violinist Luz Leskowitz.
Since 2009 he is professor at the International Summer Academy of Mozarteum and the head of the Leopold-Mozart-Institute as the representative for the highly talented program. Many of his students are prize winners of renown international piano competitions in Germany, Austria, South Corea, Spain, Serbia, Netherlands, Kazakhstan,Poland, Italy, Hungary etc.
Florence Millet

Florence Millet, of Franco-German descent, performs with orchestra, in recitals and ensembles in venues across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Conductors she worked with are Charles Dutoit, Robert Kapilow, Pascal Verrot, Simon Blech, Heinz Holliger, Julia Jones, Elena Schwartz , Jonathan Darlington.
She is a founding member of the Lions Gate Trio, since 1988. Residencies include Tanglewood Festival, Universities of North-Carolina-Greensboro, Yale, W. Hartford and the Fairfield Library, CT.
A Professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, she was Chair of the Piano Department from 2018 and was elected Executive Director of its Wuppertal Campus in 2021.
She has worked closely with main voices in composition: Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, George Crumb, Johannes Schöllhorn, Jörg Widman, Hans Werner Henze, Hans Abrahamson. She played with the Ensemble Intercontemporain under Pierre Boulez and David Robertson from 1992-2000.
Her recordings for the labels Centaur, Sony, Triton and Erato were praised on both sides of the Atlantic. She can be heard in radio productions on France Musique, RTBF, WDR .
A graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, Millet received her Masters and Doctoral Degrees at State University of New York at Stony Brook where she studied with Gilbert Kalish. Her other mentors were Leon Fleisher, Paul Badura Skoda, Peter Serkin and Jean Hubeau.
Florence Millet ist artistic adviser for the Lichterfeld Foundation, promoting tolerance, intercultural understanding and creator of the Echospore.de platform which propagates music from persecuted composers.
She explores multidisciplinairy concert formats with actors, Choreografy and dance ( Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal) and Arts in the Tony Cragg Foundation, Van der Heyd Museum, Phillips Collection or in lecture recitals.
Alicia Fiderkiewicz

Born in Warsaw, Poland, the young Alicja Fiderkiewicz's outstanding musical talent was recognised at the tender age of 3 by her elder sister's piano teacher who, upon hearing her play, immediately spotted Alicja's tremendous potential. She saw Alicja's passion for music and at the age of 7 Alicja entered Karol Szymanowski's School of Music in Warsaw and began studying the piano in the class of Prof. Krystyna Bocianowska.
Two years later Alicja was accepted into the Central School of Music attached to Moscow's Conservatoire. There she was taught by Prof. Tatyana Evgenevna Kestner. During 6 years in Moscow Alicja also played in front of Tatiana Nikolayeva, Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels.
Upon returning to Poland Alicja continued her musical education in Karol Szymanowski's Lyceum of Music in Warsaw under the guidance of Prof. Wanda Losakiewicz and Prof. Zbigniew Drzewiecki.
During the subsequent 4 years in Warsaw Alicja won Polish National Bach and Beethoven Competitions, and she also won Chopin's Scholarship for 4 years in succession, the success of which gave her a number of engagements throughout Poland and major venues in Warsaw, including Royal Lazienki Park, Chopin's birth place - -Zelazowa Wola, Ostrogski Palace and Warsaw Philharmonic Hall.
Having graduated from Warsaw's Lyceum of Music with Distinction, Alicja decided to continue her studies abroad. She entered Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK in the class of Polish pianist, Prof. Ryszard Bakst. Within 3 months of entering RNCM Alicja was awarded a scholarship for the rest of her 5 years undergraduate studies and further year as a post graduate student. Prof. Bakst was to have vast influence on Alicja's musical development especially that of her sound, which has been described by some critics in her Chopin recital CD as "a sound of exquisite beauty".
During her studies at the RNCM Alicja won a number of college and outside awards and concerto competitions and represented her college in many concert venues across the UK. She participated in number of masterclasses, including performing Ravel's "Gaspard de la Nuit" for Prof. V. Perlemutter. She graduated with Distinction in both performing and teaching.
Throughout her career Alicja appeared with number of major orchestras - The Halle, Da Camera, Manchester Camerata, La Scala in Milan, Warsaw National Philharmonic,
Polish Radio & TV and many others and worked with number of conductors including Frank Cliff, Jacek Kaspszyk, Marek Pijarowski, Kenneth Page, Owain Orwell Hughes, Pierluigi Urbini.
Alicja is a winner of Dudley International Piano Competition and bronze medalist in the Premio Dino Ciani International Piano Competition in La Scala, Milan, where her performances were highly praised by Martha Argerich, Fou T'Song and Italian critics, who wrote "AlicjaFiderkiewicz is a young Polish pianist, whose authority and domination at the keyboard, technical resources, and excellent musicality show her to be a superb musical talent and promise for her most radiant future".
Alicja is also a recipient of Calouste Gulbenkian Fellowship.
Alicja has performed widely throughout the UK including number of recitals in the Wigmore Hall, St. John's Smith Square, St-Martin's-in-the-fields in London. She has performed in Manchester, Isle of Man, Liverpool, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow to name a few. As well as performances in the UK Alicja has performed concertos and recitals in Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, Cyprus, Spain, Finland, Japan, USA, Singapore & Malaysia.
For a number of years, Alicja took some time - out from stage and regular performances but continued her work as a member of keyboard department at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, UK. Since returning to the stage Alicja has reestablished her career as performing and recording artist.
She is frequent faculty member and performer at the prestigious International Summer School for Pianists at Chetham's, Manchester and she is often giving masterclasses in the UK and abroad and has also been a jury member on number of competitions.
She has appeared on BBC Radio and TV as well as on some local radio stations. There are 4 highly acclaimed CD's on Divine Arts label.
Charitable performances and commitments to various worthwhile causes form part of Alicja's career, notably MacMillan Cancer Relief, MacMillan Nurses, Cancer Research, The Heart Foundation, Eden Animal Refuge, The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Save the Children,d Japan Tsunami Relief and in addition, raising funds to support various churches and historical buildings in the UK and abroad.

His discography includes recordings for Sarx Records , Assicurazioni Generali , for Tau Records , for the French music magazine Piano , for Radio Classica, Radio Danzica and for Radio Suisse Romande.
In 2006 the Nascor-Ysaye Records label released a CD with music by Schumann and Prokofiev, which received the La Clef ResMusica.com and Coup de coeur Fnac awards.
In 2008 a DVD dedicated to Mozart and Beethoven was released for Domovideo , made on the occasion of Mozart's 250th anniversary in 2006 and also broadcast by the digital satellite channel SKY CLASSICA .
In the same year he published a CD with Johann Christian Bach's Six Sonatas op.17 for Naxos , performed on the modern piano, which received the CHOC du Monde de la Musique and Diapason Superbe award and broadcast all over the world by Radio France, BBC 3 , Radio 4 Netherland, Radio New Zealand, ABC Classic FM USA and Australia.
In 2019 he founded the Amadeus Sound Project , an independent record label of which he is artistic director and producer , for which he publishes
The Art of Amadeus Piano Duo (2019), the first CD of Amadeus Piano Duo for 4 hands piano together with pianist Valentina Fornari, in collaboration with Yamaha Italia;
Yann Tiersen: Piano Works (2020);
Max Richter: Piano Works (2020).
In 2019 he founded and directs the Amadeus Web Channel , a live streaming channel that broadcasts the events of the Amadeus Academy on social channels such as Facebook and YouTube.
He is regularly invited as a juror in important national and international piano competitions such as F. Chopin of Warsaw, Chopin of Szafarnia, Chopin of Hannover, Chopin of Budapest, A. Rubinstein in memoriam of Bydgoszcz, R. Vines of Lleida , Top of the World of Tromsø, Maj Lind of Helsinki, V. Horowitz of Kiev, International Competition of Tbilisi, Concert Artists Auditions of New York, A. Salieri of Legnago (VR), R. Zadra of Abano Terme (PD), R. Gallinari of Pieve of Cento (BO),F. Moscato di Airola (BN), R. Melini di Pinè (TN), City of Villafranca (VR), City of San Donà di Piave (VE), Amadeus Competition of Lazise (VR).
Graduated in piano at the age of 17 at the "FE Dall'Abaco" State Conservatory of Music in Verona with Prof. Laura Palmieri, he obtained the II Level Academic Diploma in piano with a concert address with Maestro Virginio Pavarana in 2006 At the same time he perfected himself with Franco Scala ,
Boris Petrushansky and Leonid Margarius at the International Piano Academy “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola where he obtained the Piano Master in 2005.
He also took part in the masterclasses of great pianists such as Maurizio Pollini at the Lucerne Summer Festival, Murray Perahia at the Salle Gaveau Masterclasses in Paris, Andrej Jasinski and Alfons Kontarsky at the Summer Academy in Salzburg, Paul Badura-Skoda at the Ecole Normale de Musique of Paris, in addition to the Masters Michael Dalberto, Louis Lortie, Michael Beroff, Alexander Lonquich, Arie Vardi, Fou Ts'ong, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling.
He covered the role of main piano teacher in the 2011/2012 academic year at the “S. Moniuszko ” in Gdansk and the “ F. Nowowiejski ” by Bydgoszcz (Poland).
He was subsequently a principal piano teacher at the “N. Piccinni ” in Bari from 2013 to 2014, at the Higher Institute of Musical Studies“ G. Verdi ” in Ravenna from 2014 to 2017, at the“ A. Buzzolla ” in Adria (RO) from 2017 to 2020, and currently at the“ F. Bonporti "of Trento - section of Riva del Garda.
He also carried out teaching activities in Masterclasses at the School of Instruments in Arco di Legnago (VR), the Conservatories of Latina and Padua, the Geneva Conservatory, the “M. Paderewski "in Warsaw, the Tromsø Conservatory (Norway), the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Tbilisi Conservatory (Georgia), the Mannes College of Music in New York, the Bowdoin Festival in Brunswick (Maine - USA), the Music College of Nassau (Bahamas), the Music School of Tokyo, the Music School of Hong Kong.
Since 2014 he has been a principal piano teacher at the Amadeus Academy in Valeggio sul Mincio (VR), of which he is also Artistic Director, and is a member of the Amadeus Piano Duo together with the teacher and pianist Valentina Fornari.
Michelle Howland

Michelle Howland is the artistic director of the Elevato Piano Competition and the Chopin Edition / Stanza Junior Piano Competition. She currently resides in Germany. Michelle Howland organizes charity events, masterclasses & concerts, and she is working to promote classical music, especially to a younger audience.
Michelle Howland has been organizing the Elevato competition since 2020. Michelle has been a jury member for the International Instrumental Performance Competition & Cultural Caravan Festival. Her students have won top marks for the Jugend Musiziert in Germany, and have won numerous awards in the Performing Arts Festival in Canada.
Michelle organized piano concerto winner's concert performances with L’Orchestra Filarmonic Pugliese in August, 2022 for 3 outstanding pianists from the Elevato Piano Competition.
She has also organized Elevato Competition winner's concerts which have taken place in Switzerland, Italy, and Austria. Recently she has organized masterclasses for the solo category winners in Vienna, september 2022.
Michelle Howland continues her projects with the Elevato Competition in July 2023, in Porto, Portugal, for solo & concerto categories. She has also planned winner's concerts in March 2023 in Bern, Switzerland, and April 2023, in Paris, France.