Competition 2026

2026 Jury

• Maestro Gianni Bergamo
  

  Gianni Bergamo was born in Milan, Italy in 1941, attended primary school in Italy and Liceo in Switzerland. After a degree in Economy (1964) at the Catholic University of Milan, he dedicated himself to the study of music with Tissoni (harmony and composition), D. Maffeis (organ) and N. Sanzogno (orchestra conducting) at the Conservatory of Bergamo, Italy.
  From 1964 to 1994 he was a businessman with his own import-export, real estate and finance companies, though at the same time he has remained close to music and to its world.
  In 1990 he created the Cultural Association “Gli Amici Cantori”, first as a chorus alone, then later accompanied by an orchestra. He has given many concerts in Italy with them, preferring the symphonic-sacred repertoire (masses, oratories, passions, etc.). At present, he lives in Santiago del Chile.

• Fabio Bonizzoni
  

  Fabio Bonizzoni, one of the leading Italian harpsichordists and organists of his generation, graduated in organ, organ composition and harpsichord at the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague in Ton Koopman’s class.

  After having played for several years with some of the most important orchestras specializing in early music (Amsterdam Baroque, Le Concert des Nations, Europa Galante), from 2004 he exclusively devotes himself to his activities as soloist and director, in particular of his own orchestra La Risonanza.

  Furthermore, he is harpsichord professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (Holland) and in Italy at the Conservatory of Novara; he is founder and president of the Associazione Hendel, a society devoted to the studies of Handel’s music in Italy.

  As a soloist he has been recording for many years for the Spanish label Glossa. His discography includes works by Claudio Merulo, Giovanni Salvatore, Giovanni Picchi, Francesco Geminiani, Bernardo Storace, Domenico Scarlatti and Johann Sebastian Bach (Goldberg Variations and the Art of Fugue). His latest release is devoted to the two books of toccatas of Girolamo Frescobaldi.

  In 2010 he has completed with La Risonanza the project of recording the complete Italian Cantatas with instruments by G.F. Handel: this project has been defined by Gramophone magazine as the most important of the decade, and 3 of the 7 CDs have been awarded the prestigious Handel Stanley Sadie Prize. The last disc of this series, Apollo e Dafne , won a Gramophone Award in 2011.

  His activity is also enriched by commitments as guest conductor: in recent times he has been invited by Capella Cracoviensis and Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra in Poland, by the Holland Bach Society in The Netherlands and by the Orchestra Barroca de Sevilla. Furthermore, he has conducted the orchestra of Teatro alla Scala in Milan in a new ballet called L’altro Casanova.

  Since 2014 he is artistic director of Note Etiche, a festival focusing on links between music, ethics and finance, and, from 2016 he and his orchestra enjoy an artistic residence at Palazzina Liberty in their hometown Milan.

• Jürg Dähler
  

  Jürg Dähler, born in Zurich, international activity as violinist, violist, pedagogue, and chamber musician as well as organizer and curator of renowned festivals and concert series. Studies 
  with Sándor Végh, Heribert Lauer and Pinchas Zukerman on the violin as well as with Christoph Schiller, Kim Kashkashian and Fjodor Druschinin on the viola. Formative longterm 
  artist encounters with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Heinz Holliger, Brenton Langbein and György Ligeti. After his debut in the Zurich Tonhalle with the world premiere of Daniel Schnyder's viola 
  concerto dedicated to him, he was a guest with many renowned orchestras under conductors such as Giorgio Bernasconi, Douglas Boyd, Friedrich Cerha, Thierry Fischer, Beat 
  Furrer, Reinhard Goebel, Heinz Holliger, Brenton Langbein, Petri Sakari, Stefan Sanderling, Heinrich Schiff, Jac van Steen, Marcello Viotti and Thomas Zehetmair. Concert tours as a 
  soloist and chamber musician have regularly taken him to Australia, the US and all over Europe with performances at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Salzburg Festival and the 
  Wiener Festwochen, the City of London Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Venice Biennale and at the Montreux Jazz Festival. From1985-2000 he was a member and Primarius of the 
  legendary Kammermusiker Zurich. In 1993 he co-founded of the Collegium Novum Zurich. Since 1993 he holds the position as principal violist at the Musikkollegium Winterthur and is a 
  member of the Winterthur String Quartet. In 1999 he co-founded the Swiss Chamber Concerts and runs since 2015 the Pentecost Festival at Schloss Brunegg as its artistic director. 

  He received much international acclaim for his world premiers and first performances of solo and chamber music works - many of which are written and dedicated for him - by composers 
  such as Birtwistle, Blank, Braun, Bodman-Rae, Cerha, Danner, Dayer, Drushinin, Dubugnon, Dusapin, Furrer, Gaudibert, Gervasoni, Haller, Hefti, Henze, Holliger, Jost, Käser, Kelterborn, Kür, 
  Lehmann, Ligeti, Moser, Pärt, Polglase, Racine, Schnyder, Wyttenbach, Vassena and Zimmerlin. He produced over 30 CDs for labels such as ECM, NEOS, Genuin, Accord, Claves, 
  Grammont, Jecklin and Cantando. Currently he teaches at the Kalaidos University and gave master classes at many renowned teaching institutes such as Conservatorio di Musica “Arrigo 
  Boito” di Parma, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music or the National Academy of Music in Melbourne. In 2007 he obtained the title “Executive Master in Arts Administration” from the 
  Faculty of Philosophy and Economics at the University of Zurich with summa cum laude. In 2008 he received the Zolliker Art Prize for his artistic work and his services to the Swiss cultural 
  life, and in 2020 he was honoured with the Swiss Music Prize for his dedicated work for the Swiss Chamber Concerts. He plays a violin by Antonio Stradivarius, Cremona 1714, and a viola 
  by Raffaele Fiorini, Bologna 1893. 

  www.juergdaehler.com 
  www.festivalbrunegg.com 
  www.swisschamberconcerts.ch 

   

• Giulia Genini
  

  Born in Lugano, Switzerland, Giulia Genini studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in the Recorder class of Conrad Steinmann and in the Historical Bassoon class of Donna Agrell and Josep Borras. She obtained her diploma in recorder (performance and pedagogy) with distinction and her Master in Historical Performance Practice in baroque bassoon and dulcian, also with distinction. She also took part in Master Classes with Jordi Savall, Pierre Hamon, Masaaki Suzuki, Steven Devine and Katharina Arfken.

  She was awarded a scholarship of the FriedlWald Stiftung Basel, as well as the ASRI Prize in 2009. In 2014 she won the first prize of the Foundation Kiefer Hablitzel and consequently performed as a soloist at the Menuhin Festival Gstaad.

  Giulia Genini regularly performs with Ensembles such as: La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, I Barocchisti, Accademia Bizantina, Il Giardino Armonico, La Divina Armonia, Ensemble Claudiana, La Piffarescha, Cappella Mediterranea, Kammerorchester Basel, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Accademia degli Astrusi, Freitagsakademie Bern, Capriccio Basel, Il Pomo d’Oro, Il Complesso Barocco, NDR Barockorchester, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre de l’Académie Européenne, Britten Pears Baroque Orchestra, Cantus Cölln and Concerto Palatino, Freiburger Barockorchester, Il Gusto Barocco, Millenium Orchestra. She has worked with conductors such as Andrea Marcon, Diego Fasolis, Giovanni Antonini, Lorenzo Ghielmi, Luca Pianca, Leonardo Garcia-Alarcon, Ottavio Dantone, Stefano Montanari, Alan Curtis, William Christie, Masaaki Suzuki, Bernhard Forck,  Konrad Junghänel, Ivor Bolton, Federico Ferri, Gabriel Garrido, Andreas Stoehr, Jörg Halubeck.

  In october 2012 she performed as a guest recorder player with the Berliner Philharmoniker for a Vivaldi programm conducted by Andrea Marcon.

  As a soloist she performed together with Venice Baroque Orchestra at Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Schleswig Holstein Musikfestival, Settimane Musicali di Ascona, Geneva Victoria Hall, Carinthischer Sommer Festival Ossiach, 59. Festspiele Europäische Wochen Passau in Ostbayern and in New York Carnegie Hall.

  She is the director of the ensemble Concerto Scirocco, developing an intense discographical and musical activity focused on XVII repertoire all around Europe, obtaining important rewards like Diapason Découverte, 5 Diapasons, CHOC Classica du mois, 5 Étoiles Classica.

  She took part in radio recordings for RSI Radio Svizzera Italiana Rete Due, Radio de la Suisse Romande Espace 2, Radio Swiss Classic, Radio Classique France, SRF Kultur und MDR, video recordings for ARTE, TSI and Schweizer Fernsehen and in CD recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Virgin Classics, Decca, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, Arcana, Alpha and CPO.

  Since 2015 she is invited as guest-coach at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, coordinating winds sectionals for orchestral projects about Historical Performance Practice. There, she’s also currently working as Co-Head of Studies in the performance area.

  In April 2019 she taught a Workshop at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis about italian instrumental repertoire from 17th century.

  She was member of the jury for the Swiss Youth Music Competition from 2010 until 2016.

  She is also artistic director of the Early Music Festival CaronAntica, which takes place in the historical village of Carona, by Lugano, Switzerland.

  2021-2023 she was appointed professor for historical bassoon and recorder at the Conservatorio “Bruno Maderna” in Cesena.

  Since September 2022 she is professor for historical bassoons at the Haute École de Musique de Genève.

• Daniel Rowland
  

  Daniel studied with Davina van Wely, Viktor Liberman and Igor Oistrakh, and worked intensively with Herman Krebbers, Ruggiero Ricci and Ivry Gitlis. Having won various national and international prizes, including the Brahms Prize of the Brahms Society in Baden-Baden and the prestigious Oskar Back Competition at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, he made his concerto debut in 1992 performing the Tchaikovsky Concerto at the Concertgebouw. Since then, he has been recognised as a highly charismatic, expressive and versatile artist, who maintains a busy international career as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and chamber orchestra director.

  As a soloist, Daniel Rowland has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, most notably the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Glinka Hall in St. Petersburg and the Gulbenkian in Lisbon, and has collaborated with noted conductors such as Andrei Boreiko, Djanzug Khakidze, Viktor Liberman, Lawrence Foster, Heinz Holliger, Francois Xavier Roth, Bernhard Gueller and Jaap van Zweden. Apart from the core classical and romantic repertoire, Daniel is an enthusiastic advocate of 20th century and contemporary music, appearing as a soloist with ensembles such as the Nieuw Ensemble, Musikfabrik and Contrechamps. Recent highlights include the Berg Kammerconcert under Heinz Holliger, Saariaho's Graaltheater and Ferneyhough's Terrain - as well as Berio's Sequenza at the Wigmore Hall.

  A passionate chamber musician, Daniel has performed with artists as diverse as Ivry Gitlis, Polina Leschenko, Heinz Holliger, Dawn Upshaw, Gilles Apap, Alexander Lonquich, Priya Mitchell, Marcelo Nisinman, Michael Collins, Nicolas Daniel, Willard White and Elvis Costello. He is a frequent guest at foremost international chamber music festivals in Kuhmo, Stellenbosch, Risor, Sonoro, Beethoven Festival Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Chiemgau, Osnabrück and Oxford. The Stift International Music Festival, of which he is founder and artistic director, will see its tenth edition in August 2014. This summer festival, held at an idyllic spot in the eastern Netherlands with concerts given in a 15th century church renowned for its fine acoustics, has garnered widespread acclaim as a festival of exceptional musical intensity and intimacy.

  In July 2007, Rowland joined the internationally renowned London-based Brodsky String Quartet as first violinist. The group miaintains a busy international performing schedule, in addition to its residency at Kings Place in London, and frequent recordings for Chandos.

  Since 2012, Daniel is also the violinist of the acclaimed London Conchord Ensemble.

  Daniel forms a recital duo with acclaimed pianist Natacha Kudritskaya. Two discs of the duo due for release in '14: 'The Paris connection' (Ravel, Debussy, Poulenc, Gerschwin & Antheil) for Gutman Records and the complete Enescu violin/piano works for Champs Hill Records. He indulges his passion for tango with ChamberJam Europe with bandoneon virtuoso Marcelo Nisinman. The group recorded it's debut disc 'Tangos del angel y del Diablo' in Berlin in June '14. Records. His recording of the Vivaldi/Piazzolla Seasons for Two Pianists Records was released to tremendous critical acclaim (“to understand the meaning of fabulous, listen to these Piazzolla Seasons"- Die Burger)

  In demand as a soloist/director, Daniel has been invited to work with the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon, Portugal), the Camerata Scotland, the Tromsø Chamber Orchestra (Norway), the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa, and the London Mozart Festival Orchestra, among many others.

  Daniel is professor of violin at the Royal College of Music in London and gives Masterclasses all over the world. He is also a guest concertmaster with the BBCSO, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. His instrument is by Lorenzo Storioni, Cremona, 1776.