Gilles Ledure studied musicology at the universities of Leuven and Paris. Since 2011 he is the general manager of the Brussels cultural house Flagey. He started his career in the music world in Belgium at La Monnaie/De Munt and with the Belgian National Orchestra. In 2006 he headed abroad, first to Luxemburg to lead the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and shortly afterwards to France, where he was artistic director of the Orchestre National de Lille and the Lille Piano Festival until 2011. In 2003 he founded Tactus (Young Composers’ Forum), the non-profit organization that supports young composers in the creation and performance of orchestral works in collaboration with various cultural institutions. Particularly attentive to the training of young talents, Gilles Ledure is on the Board of Directors of the Queen Elisabeth Competition and the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel and is a member of the Artistic Council of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. In 2014 he received the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France, for his contribution to cultural and artistic relations between Belgium and France.

Imogen Cooper is regarded as one of the finest interpreters of the classical and romantic repertoire. Recent and future concerto performances include the London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala with Fabio Luisi, The Hallé with Sir Mark Elder, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra with Ryan Wigglesworth and The Cleveland Orchestra with Dame Jane Glover. In the 2024-25 season her solo recitals brought her to London, Dublin and Montreal. As a chamber musician, she performs regularly with Henning Kraggerud and Adrian Brendel. Following a long collaboration with Wolfgang Holzmair in both the concert hall and recording studio, her Lieder partners now include Ian Bostridge, Dame Sarah Connolly and Mark Padmore. Imogen Cooper’s most recent solo recordings have been for Chandos Records. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2021. The Imogen Cooper Music Trust was founded in 2015 to support young pianists at the cusp of their careers and give them time in an environment of peace and beauty.

François-Frédéric Guy's has performed worldwide under such great conductors as Philippe Jordan, Kent Nagano, Daniel Harding and Esa-Pekka Salonen as well as alongside such orchestras as the Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, NHK Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra. Curious about the music of his time, he has performed the works of many contemporary composers and frequently gives world premieres. Since 2012, he has regularly conducted from the piano. In 2022 he was appointed musical director of the Microcosme ensemble. He recently performed in Paris in recital and with orchestra at the Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Théâtre du Châtelet. He teamed up with Philippe Jordan again in Munich with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and in Vienna with the Wiener Symphoniker. His latest concerts have taken him to Portugal, where he conducted Beethoven’s five concertos from the keyboard, to Denmark, Switzerland and Japan with the NHK Symphony Orchestra.

Daejin Kim is one of the leading pianists and pedagogues in Korea. In 1985 he won First Prize at the Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition (Cleveland Competition). Since then, he has performed in recital and with orchestra in the United States, Europe and Asia. He was awarded the ‘Professor of the Year’ Award by the Music Association of Korea and the ‘Artist of the Year’ decoration by the Korean Ministry of Culture, as well as the 2017 Grand Prize of the Daewon Cultural Foundation. He was also a two-time recipient of the Professor Award by the Kumho Music Foundation. He has been a jury member of such competitions as the Ferruccio Busoni, Beethoven (Bonn), Rubinstein and Leeds. From 2008 to 2017, he was the Music Director of the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra. His recordings on the Sony label include two Mozart piano concertos with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted from the keyboard, and live recordings of the complete cycle of Sibelius and Tchaikovsky Symphonies. A professor in the piano department for over thirty years, he is currently the President of the Korea National University of Arts.

Born in Japan, Momo Kodama spent her early years in Europe. After attending the Conservatoire de Paris, she went on to study under Murray Perahia, András Schiff, Vera Gornostaeva and Tatiana Nikolayeva. In 1991 she became the youngest laureate of the ARD Music Competition in Munich. She has been invited to play with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Boston Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared at such concert halls as the Vienna Musikverein, Berliner Philharmonie, Suntory Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Theatre des Champs-Élysees, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ (Amsterdam) and Wigmore Hall. Her repertoire ranges from the classical period to contemporary works by Toshio Hosokawa, Jorg Widmann and Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier that have been dedicated to her. Momo Kodama has recorded for ECM with the Mito Chamber Orchestra. For Pentatone, she has also recorded CDs with her sister Mari Kodama. In 2022 she was appointed professor at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe.

Since winning the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2010, Denis Kozhukhin has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Staatskapelle Berlin. He is a regular guest at the festivals of Verbier, Grafenegg and Lanaudiere. As a Pentatone recording artist, his discography spans works by Haydn, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Ravel and Gershwin. Recently, he returned to the BBC Proms and made his debut at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Other highlights include performances with the Oslo Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Washington’s National Symphony, Orquestra Sinfónica de Barcelona, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the Dallas, Melbourne and San Francisco symphonic orchestras, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Frankfurt’s hr-Sinfonieorchester, BBC Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and WDR Sinfonieorchester. He has performed recitals and chamber music at the Pierre Boulez Saal, Elbphilharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus and Tonhalle Zürich.

An artist in residence at Flagey, Julien Libeer has performed at venues such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Barbican Hall, Wigmore Hall, Palau de la Musica and Elbphilharmonie. Other tours have taken him to Japan, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Turkey and the United States. He has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Brussels Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia and New Japan Philharmonic. As a chamber musician, he has shared the stage with Augustin Dumay, Bruno Philippe, Paul Lewis, Samuel Hasselhorn, Maria João Pires and Lorenzo Gatto, with whom he recorded the complete Beethoven sonatas (Diapason d’Or 2016). On the Harmonia Mundi label he has released two albums dedicated to Bach, one taking a conceptual approach to Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. Julien Libeer is the initiator of many projects aimed at expanding the presence of music beyond the concert hall. This includes ‘Salon Libeer’ at Concertgebouw Brugge and ‘Dead or Alive’, a lecture in collaboration with KU Leuven in Belgium.

Jan Michiels first studied at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel before perfecting his skills at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin under Hans Leygraf. He went on to win prizes at various competitions, including the Tenuto Competition (1988), International Piano Competition E. Durlet (1989), Queen Elisabeth Competition (1991) and Gouden Vleugels/KBC Muziekprijs (2006). He currently teaches piano at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel and is a guest professor at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He has also given master classes in Hamburg, Murcia, Szombathely, London, Montepulciano, Strasbourg and Lisbon, among others. He regularly performs as a soloist or in chamber music ensembles in various music venues in Europe and Asia as well as in dance productions by Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker, Vincent Dunoyer and Sen Hea Ha. His repertoire ranges from Bach to contemporary works. In addition to many radio recordings, he has produced CDs with works by composers such as Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Brahms, Busoni, Debussy, Dvorák, Janácek, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Ligeti, Kurtág and Goeyvaerts.

Steven Osborne studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. He is a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Patron of both the Scottish International Piano Competition and Lammermuir Festival, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2014. He has served as artist in residence at Wigmore Hall and Bath International Music Festival, and is often invited to curate festivals, including in Antwerp at De Singel and for the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, he has performed in such venues as the Wiener Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berliner Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie, Suntory Hall and Kennedy Center Washington, and is a regular guest at both the Lincoln Center and Wigmore Hall. He has been a Hyperion recording artist since 1998, with releases spanning Beethoven, Schubert, Ravel, Liszt, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Medtner, Messiaen, Britten, Tippett, Crumb and Feldman, winning many awards around the world. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his services to music in 2022.

After graduating from the National Art Schools of Cuba, Jorge Luis Prats received a grant to study at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he trained under Rudolf Kerer. He continued his education at the Conservatoire de Paris under Magda Tagliaferro and later at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna under Paul Badura-Skoda. At age 21 he won the Grand Prix of the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris. He also won the Gold Medal at the Katia Popova Festival in Bulgaria and First Prize at the Amadeo Roldán Piano Competition in Cuba. He has performed with, among others, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, BBC Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, OFUNAM, Colombia Philharmonic Orchestra, Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and Municipal Caracas Orchestra. He served as artistic director and soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba from 1985 to 2002. He has also recorded for labels such as Pathé Marconi, Deutsche Grammophon and Musical Heritage, and is regularly invited to serve as a jury member or chairman of international competitions.

Considered one of today’s great piano players, Anne Queffélec has been invited to perform along such orchestras as the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Birmingham Symphony, Tonhalle Zürich, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Prague Philharmonia, Kremerata Baltica, Sinfonia Varsovia and more, under the direction of such prestigious conductors as Boulez, Gardiner, Zecchi, Jordan, Zinman, Eschenbach, Conlon, Belohlavek, Skrowacewski, Jarvi, Foster, Holliger and Janowski, among others. She was heard on the soundtrack for the film Amadeus under the direction of Neville Marriner. She has performed several times at the BBC Proms and at the leading festivals in France: Montpellier, Grange de Meslay, Folle Journée de Nantes, Roque d’Anthéron, Chaise-Dieu, Besançon and Rocamadour. Her more than forty recordings on such labels as Erato, Virgin Classics and Mirare bear witness to an eclectic repertoire ranging from Scarlatti to Dutilleux.

Tamara Stefanovich studied in Belgrade, at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and at the Kölner Musikhochschule under Claude Frank and Radu Lupu. She has partnered with such ensembles as The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony and Philharmonic orchestras, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Mahler Chamber Orchestra, among others. She has performed at the world’s major concert venues, including Suntory Hall Tokyo, London’s Royal Albert and Wigmore halls, Philharmonie Berlin, Elbphilharmonie, Philharmonie de Paris and Tonhalle Zürich. A welcome guest at international festivals, she has appeared at Musikfest Berlin, Musikfest Hamburg, Flagey Piano Days, London Piano Festival and BBC Proms. She regularly leads educational projects at London’s Barbican Centre, the Kölner Philharmonie and the Klavier-Festival Ruhr. She was a co-founder and curator of the Portland International Piano Festival ‘The Clearing’. For her recordings, she has received an Edison Award and has been nominated for a Grammy Award.

Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden entered the Conservatoire Royal de musique de Bruxelles at age 12, studying under Eduardo Del Pueyo until the end of his training at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel. He was only 16 when he was proclaimed a laureate of the 1964 Queen Elisabeth Competition. He has performed along many symphony orchestras, including the Saint Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, Residentie Orkest in The Hague and several Belgian orchestras. He has worked with such conductors as Paul Kletzky, Rudolf Barshai and Yuri Temirkanov. As a chamber musician, he has played with Belgian and international partners, including Véronique Bogaerts, Marie Hallynck, Augustin Dumay, Silvia Marcovici, Michaela Martin, Miriam Fried, Gérard Caussé, Frans Helmerson, Michel Strauss, José Van Dam and Walter Boeykens as well as the Enesco Quartet, Melos Quartet, Quatuor Ysaÿe and César Franck Ensemble. He is currently an honorary professor at the Conservatoire de Bruxelles, Master in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel and artistic director of the Eduardo Del Pueyo Music Centre.

The First Prize won at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2007 launched Anna Vinnitskaya’s international career. Her performances with such top orchestras as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Boston Symphony Orchestra have been received with great enthusiasm worldwide. Her CD recordings have won awards such as the Diapason d’Or and Gramophone Editor’s Choice, and include a celebrated Chopin album, a Rachmaninov album with the Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and the album Piano Dances released in 2024. That same year, she was invited to co-curate the Flagey Piano Days. Recently, she has been artist in residence with the Dresden Philharmonic at the invitation of Marek Janowski, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and the Brussels Centre for Fine Arts. Anna Vinnitskaya studied under Evgeni Koroliov at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, where she herself has been a professor since 2009.

Boyan Vodenitcharov won Third Prize at both the Busoni Competition (1981) and the Queen Elisabeth Competition (1983), while still a student in the State Conservatoire in Sofia where he studied composition and piano. In 1986 and 1987 he was awarded a Fulbright Grant to study under Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. He has been invited to appear in Europe, the United States, Canada and Japan. He has performed in such concert halls as the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Palais de la Musique in Strasbourg, Smetana Hall in Prague and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Showing a lively interest in ancient instruments, he has carried out many projects on them with musicians such as Sigiswald Kuijken, Ryo Terakado and Piet Kuijken. He has recorded several CDs with music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Debussy, among others, and is also active in the field of composition and improvisation, often in collaboration with jazz musicians, choreographers and film-makers. Presently he is a professor of piano, pianoforte and improvisation at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel.

Lilya Zilberstein got her first taste of international success in 1987 when she won the Busoni Competition in Bolzano. In 1991 she debuted with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Claudio Abbado, which formed the basis of a long-term cooperation. She has performed concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra della Scala, Staatskapelle Dresden and many others. As a chamber musician she has toured with Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov and Tabea Zimmermann, and performed in trio formation with Ilya Gringolts and Antonio Meneses. She recently finished a tour of Asia with her son Anton Gerzenberg. A regular juror of international competitions, she chaired the jury of the 2024 George Enescu International Competition. Since 2014 she has been a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and since 2011 she regularly gives masterclasses at the Accademia Chigiana. Lilya Zilberstein has recorded eight CDs for Deutsche Grammophon and recorded the Brahms sonata for two pianos with Martha Argerich, released by EMI.