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, the International Piano Duet Festival in Ekaterinburg, the International Silvestrov Festival. 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. A. 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. A. 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, in Ukraine, every two years takes place “The Anatoly Zatin International Piano Competition for Young Pianists”. Anatoly Zatin is currently Director of the Music Department at the Colima University in Mexico.

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
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 honors at the Conservatory. These honors included mentions for concert and chamber piano, accompaniment, 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-records in France and Germany with works of D. Schostakovitch, 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.

Italy

Paola Bruni started playing the piano when she was 4-years-old with her grandfather; later she attended the Conservatory “G. Rossini” in Pesaro with  M° Franco Scala, where she graduated with First Class honours.
After several first prizes in national and international Piano Competitions, in the year 1986 she won, with unanimous vote, the First Prize at the “A. Casagrande” International Competition in Terni dedicated to R. Schumann. From that moment onwards, both the public and the critics have considered Paola Bruni as being one of the most interesting forthcoming talents, guest of the main Music Institutions in Italy, South Africa, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Brussels, Cannes and London, where she recorded a CD with the European Community Chamber Orchestra.
In 1995 she collaborated with the Japanese Music Conservatories for a CD series project, recording works for Piano and Orchestra for the label “Deutsche Gramophone Educational” in Vienna.
She has often been invited in the jury of national and international Piano Competitions in Italy and abroad besides Masterclasses in Italy, South Africa and South Korea.  
She played as soloist with important Italian, South African Orchestras and also with Lubljana Radio Orchestra.
She took part in several Radio and TV broadcasts in Italy (RAI), Holland (AVRO) and South Africa (SABC).
Besides the soloist career, she plays as a Piano Duo with the pianist Pasquale Iannone with whom she had his debut in Seoul in 2001 and in Johannesburg with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003.
In July 2003 she succeeded in the “Web Concert Hall International Competition” (USA) winning as Piano Duo together with Pasquale Iannone and, as soloist, an “Honorary Mention”.
Since 1991 she regularly teaches at the Conservatory in Italy.

USA

Dr. Paul Pollei (Salt Lake City, USA) is coordinator of Graduate Keyboard Studies, member of the piano faculty at Brigham Young University, Utah, USA and artistic Director of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. The Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation sponsors festivals and international competitions. In addition, he serves as advisor for the music faculty of the Waterfored School in Sandy, Utah. He served as faculty member of the Tuacahn Center for the Arts in St. George, Utah.

Dr. Pollei has been a jury member for many national and international competitions throughout the world and has served as a member of juries in Japan, China, Australia, throughout Europe, and in all states of the United States. He is founding member of the American Piano Quartet, devoted to research, performance, and re-publication of music for two pianos/eight hands. The quartet has performed in concert worldwide and continues an active research, performing and recording career.

Dr. Pollei is the devoted teacher to many prizewinning students and is a frequent lecturer for teacher workshops and masterclasses in America and throughout the world.

Germany
Peter Waas was born in 1950. From 1965 his teachers have been Heinz Vogler, Leipzig, Jakow Sak, Elisso Wirssaladse and Tatjana Nikolaewa at the Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, Moscow, Amadeus Webersinke at the Academy of Music Dresden. Since 1993 Peter Waas is professor for piano at The Liszt School of Music in Weimar.
He has been the first director of the Institute for keyed instruments and ancient music since its establishment in 1999. His concert career as soloist and chamber musician mostly develops in European countries and Asia.
P. Waas is initiator and artistic director of the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists 2005 which will be pursued in the years 2008 and 2011 in the age groups 13, 14-16 and 17-19. He also gives master classes in various European countries and China.

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 has been using all his time for composition and for running his own business Uilenspiegel, advising all kinds of musical and governmental institutions.

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.