Belgium
referred to as the "Grand Lady of the Belgian Piano" by the international press, is making a carrier both as a concert pianist and a pedagogue.
If Andersen has championed Belgian music the world over, her repertoire includes also works by early composers such as Cherubini and Kozeluch, performed on the pianoforte, to romantic and contemporary composers, several of whom have written especially for her.
A recipient of many international awards, "FUGA"Trophy (Union of Belgian Composers), honoured with the "Harriet Cohen International Bach-Medal" (London) and "Grand Prix du Disque de l'Académie Charles Cros" (Paris), Diane Andersen has performed with such renowned conductors as Maderna, Boulez and Sawallisch and collaborated with Kodaly, Tansman and Gertler (friend and duo partner of Bartok).
Her discography is very impressive with numerous CD and interesting LP's receiving wide acclaim by the international press.
Andersen pursues also a very intense pedagogical activity, having been for years member of the staff of the "Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles" and conducting master-classes throughout the world. Many of her students are prize winners.
Andersen is serving on the Jury of many international competitions. EPTA European Council President and President of "EPTA-BELGIUM Wallonie-Bruxelles"

France
Born in 1945 in Kiev, Ukraine, he studied at the Kiev Gliére State Music College and after that he graduated as a pianist and composer from the Ufa State Institute of Arts. After graduation, he worked in Chelyabinsk for several years as a Professor at the Music College and at the same time composed in different genres - ballet, symphonies, choir-, chamber-, and theatre music. In Moscow, where he moved to, Youli Galperin has continued his successful mix of pedagogy and composer work. He worked as a Professor at the Moscow Gnessine National Conservatory and a Musical Director of the State Theatre ‘Hermitage’. Since 1990, he has worked in Paris, at the Conservatory ‘Claude Debussy’ and at the Municipal Conservatory at Ivry-sur-Seine as a Professor of piano and composition. Youli Galperin is the founder and first director of ‘l’Academy d’Art Franco- Russe’ in Paris and the President of Association ‘Tradition Musical Russe’ in France. His compositions are performed at the different festivals of modern music at the famous concert halls in Russia, Ukraine, Germany, The Netherlands, Romania, and France. Galperin’s works have been published and recorded in different countries.

Greece
Alla Halapsis was born in former Soviet Union. She got her diplomas from Donetsk State College of Music, Kharkov State University of Arts and Tchaikovsky State Conservatory of Moscow. She has studied with the famous soloists and professors: Yakov Flier (piano), Alexey Zibtsev (chamber music) and Leonid Roisman (harpsichord).
“She is a gifted pianist with unlimited virtuosity and creative abilities” - Yakov Flier, “She is a great musician", "extraordinary virtuosity and impeccable intuition, the characteristic element of her interpretation” - Alexey Zibtsev.
During 1971-1981 she was professor of piano and chamber music at the Donetsk State University of Music and Pedagogy. The pianist had a permanent cooperation with the Composers Union of the former USSR and performed many works in first international presentations.
Alla Halapsis has appeared in recitals as a soloist, in chamber music concerts and also as a soloist with various orchestras. She takes part in several International Music Festivals and Master classes in Greece, Portugal, Italy, Hungary, France, Bulgaria and Turkey.
In 1988, 1997, 1998 and 2000 she received Diplomas of Honour “for extraordinary teaching and preparation of students, who took first prizes in International Music Competitions”.
Today Alla Halapsis is Professor of piano and chamber music at the University of Indianapolis, Athens, Professor of piano and chamber music at the Athenaeum and Synchrono Conservatories of Athens as well as Director of Studies of Protoporia Conservatory of Athens

Germany
Her studies in Krakaw, Warsaw and Paris took place in the emotional East European tradition which embodied such musicians as Chopin, Paderewski and Rubinstein. The international press acclaimed her "rapturous playing”, distinguished by "brilliant virtuosity" and a very “personal mixture of electrifying energy and profound poetry”.
Her career as a pianist began at the Special School for Music in Krakaw under Zofia Zagajewska. After being granted a scholarship from the Chopin Society she continued her studies at the Music Academy in Warsaw under Ryszard Bakst and Zbigniew Drzewiecki. After her emigration the Foundation Albert Roussel enabled her to complete her studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris in the class of Thierry de Brunhoff: a master pupil of Alfred Cortot. She graduated with the highest distinction, the "Licence de concert à l'unanimité du jury".
There followed many prizes at international piano competitions, Busoni and Casagrande Competition in Italy, at the Schumann Competition in Zwickau and in Spain at the Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona, Jose Iturbi in Valencia, Reina Sofia in Madrid and finally Premio Jaén. Not only did she win the first prizes there, but also prizes for the best interpreters of Spanish Music. Her concerts and recitals have taken her to the music centres of Europe, Japan and to the United States or America. Her recordings are published by Ars Musici an EMI
Besides her concerts activities, Elza Kolodin is especially successful in teaching young pianists. She is professor for piano at the University of music Freiburg, Germany, directs master classes in many countries and is a member of the jury of different international music competitions.

Poland
Grzegorz Kurzyñski is a graduate of the University of Music in Wroclaw (Poland), under the tutelage of Professor Wlodzimierz Obidowicz. He has also earned degrees from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels where he studied under Professor Jean Claude Vanden- Eynden, and the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York, where he studied under Professor Joseph Kalichstein and Professor Abbey Simon. He was awarded fellowships by the Belgium Ministry of Culture as well as The Barbara Piasecka-Johnson Foundation in the United States, and also received a scholarship from the outstanding American pianist Malcolm Frager. He has done concert tours in Poland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Russia, the Ukraine, Luxemburg, the United States, the Czech Republic, Australia and Italy. He has been recorded many times on radio, television and for CDs. He has been and continues to be a juror for many national and international piano competitions.
He has been teaching piano since 1972 at the University of Music in Wroclaw and the University of Music in Poznan (Poland). Presently, he is the head of the piano section and rector of the University of Music in Wroclaw.

The Netherlands
Sytze Smit (1944) studied violin and composition at the Conservatory of Music in Groningen, his native city. For more than ten years he was a member of the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, before he decided to combine composing with writing about music and with consultancy.
The Dutch choreographer Rudi van Dantzig used Smit’s composition Quipu for his ballet Niemandsland. In 1997 Isabelle van Keulen opened her Delft Chamber Music Festival with the composition Songs and Games for Violin and 8 percussionists, a piece Sytze Smit especially wrote for her. As an adviser, he played a conspicuous role in the process of reorganizing the Dutch orchestral world.
For almost fourteen years Smit was the editor in chief of the highly regarded monthly musical magazine Entracte. In that quality, he made a series of interviews with almost all leading musicians and choreographers in the world.
Between 1996 and 2001, Sytze Smit worked in Enschede as a director of the Conservatorium Hogeschool Enschede. Since spring 2001 he is using all his time for composition and for running his consultancy company Uilenspiegel, advising all kinds of musical and governmental institutions. In 2007 Sytze Smit was appointed to be the Artistic Advisor of the Amman Symphony Orchestra in Jordan.

Mexico
Born in Ukraine, pianist, composer, orchestra director, Professor. Graduated from the Conservatory of St. Petersburg in 1977, with Doctorate in Composition in 1983. He is a winner of different International competitions as pianist and as composer.
He was Master Director at the Sverdlovsk Musical Comedy Theatre and Artistic Director of the BACH Chamber Orchestra. Participated in many international festivals, among them the International UNESCO Festival in Leningrad, as director and soloist, the International Mozart Festival, and others. He recorded a series of concerts for the Central USSR Radio, as conductor of the Leningrad State Orchestra, and made several recordings for the ‘Melodia’ Company. He received ‘The best Latino American video clip’ award and ‘The best Latino American union video award’ at the Uruguay International Cinematography Festival for a film with his original music. Zatin has performed at the ‘Black and White Piano Festival’ in Mexico, at the International Music Festival of San Miguel de Allende, and at the Austrian Master Classes in Zell an der Pram.
In 1990, in Italy, he won the Medal of Honor given by the UNICEF for his activities as director and pianist. Zatin has recorded CD-s with the BACH Chamber orchestra, with the Moscow Festival Symphony Orchestra for “Azzura Musica” in Italy, with the flute player Shigeyuki Takano in Tokyo, Japan, where he permanently plays concerts.
Students of A. Zatin have won several national and international competitions. Since 2001, every two years, ‘The Anatoly Zatin International Piano Competition for Young Pianists’ takes place in the Ukraine. Anatoly Zatin is currently Director of the Music Department at the Colima University in Mexico.

The Netherlands
Born in Moscow in 1951, Michail Markov began studying piano at the age of 7. Three years later, he performed his first solo concert in his hometown with an orchestra in the Concert Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he later continued his musical education with Professor Victor Merzjanov. In 1975 M. Markov graduated with honours at the Conservatory. Including an honourable mention for concert and chamber piano, accom- paniment, as well as for professorship.
In the following years, Michail Markov successfully performed in the Eastern countries of the former Soviet block. In the years just before leaving Russia, he was a deputy director and piano teacher at the famous Moscow Gnessin Special School for musically gifted children. Since 1991, the musician has been living in the Netherlands where he has continued his successful combination of teaching and musical performances. M. Markov has made CD recordings in France and Germany with works of D. Schostakovtch, Y. Galperine and R. Shchedrin. Since mid-nineties he is working as professor at the piano department of the Conservatory Saxion Hogeschool in Enschede, the Netherlands. M. Markov is also the co-founder of the special Young Talents piano department of this Conservatory.
M. Markov has been invited to give Master Classes at many International Music Festivals and Summer Schools in the Netherlands, USA, Austria, Russia, Poland and Ukraine.
M. Markov is the founder and president of the Foundation “Russian Music Tradition in the Netherlands” and also the artistic leader of the International Piano Competition for Young Musicians in Enschede, the Netherlands.