Arie Van Lysebeth was the President of the Jury of the Queen Elisabeth Competition from 1996 to 2018. He took up the violin at the age of four. He completed his higher education at the Brussels Conservatory in music theory, bassoon, chamber music, and orchestral conducting. Following a competition, he was appointed bassoon soloist of the Belgian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, he came joint first in the Prague International Bassoon Contest. He also studied conducting under Bruno Maderna in Salzburg and under Pierre Boulez in Switzerland. Starting in 1970, he conducted the Flemish Chamber Orchestra, both in Belgium and abroad. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with the major Belgian orchestras as well as with symphony orchestras in the United States of America, Argentina, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany. He has performed with many famous soloists, including Igor Oistrakh, José Van Dam, Murray Perahia, and Augustin Dumay. From 1995 to 2004 he was the regular conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Brussels Conservatory, where he taught chamber music for many years (1970-1994) and served as director (1994-2003). From 2004 to 2014, he was the artistic director of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.

Born in Marseilles, Renée Auphan began her career there as an assistant director at the city’s opera house. Employed later by the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, she took on its entire management for five years. At the same time, she also studied singing and music; she made her operatic debut at the Opéra Comique and appeared soon after in the Monte Carlo and Marseilles opera houses. She went on to perform as a soloist at the Opéra de Paris, including during the period when Rolf Liebermann was its director. After retiring from her singing career in 1983, she was appointed to head what was known at the time as the Festival de Lausanne, which she transformed into a season of opera and ballet. This led to the establishment of the Opéra de Lausanne, of which she was director from 1984 to 1995. In 1993, she was awarded French-speaking Switzerland’s Prix des Belles-Lettres for her book Mezza voce. Between 1995 and 2001, Renée Auphan ran the Grand Théâtre in Geneva, before being appointed in 2009 to head the Opéra de Marseille, where she has directed a number of productions, including Massenet’s Manon, Sauguet’s La Chartreuse de Parme, Jean-Michel Damase’s L’Héritière, and Tomasi’s Sampiero Corso, as well as reviving Lausanne and Tours production of Honegger and Ibert’s L’Aiglon; this year, she will also revive La Traviata. She is an Officier de la Légion d’Honneur and an Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite.

In an international career that has spanned 50 years, Teresa Berganza has travelled the world, performing in its leading opera houses and concert halls, including the Paris Opera, La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan in New York, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Rome Opera, and others in Vienna, Hamburg, Stockholm, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, etc. ; she has performed under celebrated 20th-century conductors such as C.M. Giulini, H. von Karajan, G. Solti, Z. Mehta, C. Abbado, D. Barenboim, and R. Muti. Her stage presence and interpretive ability have been repeatedly acclaimed and have led to her being sought after by directors such as F. Zeffirelli, J.P. Ponnelle, G. Strehler, and P. Faggioni. Her roles have included Cherubino, Zerlina, Dorabella, Rosina, Angelina, Isabella, La Périchole, Charlotte, and Carmen. Her vast repertoire ranges from the masters of the Italian Baroque to the composers of the 20th century, with a predilection for Spanish music. In parallel with her career as a soloist, she has given numerous master classes in major Spanish and international centres, including Madrid, Santander, Paris, St Petersburg, and Rome. The recipient of a hundred different distinctions, Teresa Berganza attaches particular importance to her election as the first female member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.

After studying at the University of Music in Bucharest, Marius Brenciu made his debut as Don Ottavio (in Don Giovanni) in 1997. He has taken part in numerous competitions and has won many prizes, including 2nd Prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2000 and the Singer of the World prize at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2001. He has worked under distinguished conductors such as C. Abbado, L. Maazel, Z. Mehta, V. Gergiev, K. Petrenko, M. Jansons and S. Ozawa. He has appeared with great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the NDR Sinfonieorchester, the BBC Philharmonic, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He has sung in La Bohème in Hamburg, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, and Brussels ; in La Rondine at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and in Paris and Toulouse ; in Simon Boccanegra in Hamburg ; in La Traviata in Berlin, Rome, Brussels, San Diego, and Montpellier ; in Eugene Onegin in Vienna, Tokyo, Geneva, Zurich, and Munich ; and in L’Elisir d’amore in Berlin and Tel Aviv. He has worked with stage directors such as F. Zeffirelli, P. Stein, N. Joel, K. and U. Hermann, and A. Homoki. He has recorded for EMI, the BBC, the SWR, NHK, and Radio France. He lived in Brussels for a number of years and has become a Belgian citizen.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, the American soprano Grace Bumbry studied at the University of Boston, at Northwestern University, and at the Music Academy of the West under Lotte Lehman, who encouraged her love of German lieder. Grace Bumbry made her debut in Aida at the Paris Opera and has been a guest in the world’s greatest opera houses and festivals (Bayreuth, Covent Garden, La Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Colón, Salzburg, Verona, Orange, etc.). She has sung under prestigious conductors such as H. von Karajan, C. Abbado, G. Solti, S. Ozawa, W. Sawallisch, G. Prêtre, G. Patanè, L. Bernstein, and J. Levine. Her roles have included Amneris, Aida, Carmen, Dalila, Eboli, Tosca, Gioconda, Venus, Turandot, Salome, and many others. She took part in the production of Les Troyens at the opening of the Opéra de la Bastille.

Marc Clémeur studied theatre studies and musicology in Cologne, before going on to work as a stage direction assistant to Götz Friedrich in Amsterdam, Bayreuth, and Düsseldorf. He became a producer of classical music for Belgian radio and television in 1977. In 1984, he was appointed director of the Vlaams Filharmonisch Orkest ; and in 1989, director general of the Vlaamse Opera, which, under his management, built up an international reputation. In 2009, he became general director of the Opéra National du Rhin, where he oversaw an original project, with a particular focus on contemporary composers. He devoted a cycle to Janáèek, which was directed by Robert Carsen, and also staged rarely seen French works. Under his leadership, the Opéra Studio has trained a number of singers who today are invited on stages worldwide. After a long career in the musical world, Marc Clémeur is now frequently asked to be an artistic adviser to opera houses and competitions and is often invited to serve as a member of the jury of prestigious international competitions. He is the director of Génération Opéra in Paris, which notably organises the Voix Nouvelles competition, and artistic adviser to the Opera Pienza competition.

Peter de Caluwe studied literature and the history of the theatre at the Universities of Ghent, Brussels, and Antwerp. In 1986, Gerard Mortier invited him to join him at La Monnaie, where he worked as a dramatic adviser and was also in charge of contacts with the press, public relations, and projects for young people. In 1989, Pierre Audi and Truze Lodder asked him to join their team in Amsterdam. In 1994, he was appointed director of casting, and later artistic director. Since 2007, he has been general and artistic director of La Monnaie ; a third term in this position will prolong his stay with the company until 2025. In October 2011, under his management, La Monnaie/De Munt was named Opera House of the Year by the German specialist magazine Opernwelt. In November 2011, Radio Klara and Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen named him Musical Personality of the Year. He was the first person to be awarded an honorary master’s by the Brussels Ecole supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc. From 2011 to 2013, he was President of Opera Europa. In 2013, the Vlaamse Vereniging voor Bestuur en Beleid chose him as Manager of the Year.

Helmut Deutsch is one of the world’s most sought-after and most renowned lieder accompanists. He was born in Vienna, where he studied at the Konservatorium, the Music Academy, and the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst. He was awarded the Vienna Composition Prize in 1965 and became a professor at the age of 24. Although he is a distinguished chamber musician, playing with eminent instrumentalists, he has concentrated primarily on lieder accompaniment. When he began his career, he first accompanied the soprano Irmgard Seefried, before going on to partner Hermann Prey for twelve years. He went on to play in the most prestigious venues, working with renowned singers such as Jonas Kaufmann, Diana Damrau, Piotr Beczala, Camilla Nylund, Michael Volle and Mauro Peter. Helmut Deutsch has recorded more than 100 CDs. In recent years, he has been particularly keen to develop young talent : after a period as a professor in Vienna, he has continued to teach, mainly at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, where he was professor of lieder interpretation for 28 years. He is also a guest teacher in a number of other schools and gives numerous masterclasses in Europe and in the Far East.

Serge Dorny studied music at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent and history of art, archaeology, musicology, and communication sciences at Ghent University. In 1983, he joined the La Monnaie opera house as a musical dramaturge, under Gerard Mortier, before joining the Festival of Flanders, of which he became the artistic director in 1989. He was later appointed general director and artistic director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He was the general director of the Opéra de Lyon from 2003 to 2021, and began his tenure as general director of the Bayerische Staatsoper in 2021. He is a member of the board of directors of the Bayerische Rundfunk and of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, and serves on the juries of several international competitions. Serge Dorny was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Université de Montréal, and is also a Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur, a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and an Officier de l’Ordre de la Couronne de Belgique. His published works include L’avenir d’un passé (with Johann Thieleman) and Penser l’opéra à présent.

Following her studies in Bulgaria, Raina Kabaivanska made her debut in Italy in 1959 in Il Tabarro. Her first appearance at La Scala in Milan, two years later, launched a glorious international career : she has sung at the Metropolitan in New York, at Covent Garden, and in Salzburg, Rome, Tokyo, etc. Her repertoire includes more than a hundred works, including operas by Verdi, Gluck, Donizetti, Puccini (she has appeared in almost 400 performances of Tosca and Madame Butterfly), Wagner, Britten, and Shostakovich. She has worked under distinguished conductors such as H. von Karajan, L. B ernstein, and C. Abbado and with partners such as M. Del Monaco, F. Corelli, L. Pavarotti, and P. Domingo. She has devoted much of her time and energy for many years to teaching singing, at the Istituto Vecchi Tonelli in Modena, where she lives, and at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, for example, and at master classes in Sofia, in Italy, and all over the world. In addition to the honours bestowed on her in Bulgaria, she has won numerous awards and distinctions, including the ‘Una vita per la musica’, ‘Viotti’, ‘Abbiati’, and ‘Lorenzo il Magnifico’ awards and the title of Cavaliere al merito conferred by the Italian Republic in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the arts.

Thanks to a grant from the British Council and the Fondation de la Vocation, Sophie Karthäuser went on to further training with Noëlle Barker at the Guildhall School in London. She has been invited to perform with prestigious ensembles such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Les Arts Florissants, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Les Talens Lyriques, the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, and the Belgian National Orchestra. Sophie Karthäuser had played numerous parts in Mozart productions at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Opéra de Lyon, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Theater an der Wien, and the Opéra National du Rhin. Her discography, often acclaimed in the musical press, includes arias by Mozart with Kazushi Ono and the La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra, La Finta Giardiniera (with René Jacobs), and songs by Poulenc, Wolf, and Debussy. She is one of the guest teachers of Udo Reinemann’s international masterclasses and has also served on the jury of the Concours International Nadia and Lili Boulanger in Paris.

After studying the violin at the Utrecht Conservatory, Peter Kooij took singing lessons with Max van Egmond at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, where he graduated as a soloist. He has appeared in the world’s leading concert halls (the Concertgebouw, the Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, the Palais Garnier, the Musikverein, the Teatro Colón, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Cologne Philharmonie, etc.), with such celebrated conductors as Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, Frans Bruggen, Gustav Leonhardt, René Jacobs, Sigiswald Kuijken, Roger Norrington, and Iván Fischer. He has taken part in over 150 CD recordings and has been invited by the BIS label to participate in recordings of the complete Bach cantatas, Passions and other vocal works with the Bach Collegium Japan under Masaaki Suzuki. In addition to his career as a soloist and his teaching career in Amsterdam (at the Sweelinck Conservatory, from 1991 to 2000), Hannover (at the Conservatory, from 1995 to 1998), The Hague (at the Royal Conservatory, since 2005), and Tokyo (at the University of Fine Arts and Music, since 2000), Peter Kooij is artistic advisor to the Ensemble Vocal Européen and gives master classes in Germany, France, Portugal, Finland, and Japan.

In a career spanning more than five decades, Tom Krause has appeared with the greatest singers and conductors of his generation and has sung in the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls. Because of his enormous experience in all fields of classical music (opera, oratorio, lied, etc.) and his interest in passing on his legacy of great singing, he is in great demand for master classes around the world and is frequently invited to serve as a juror at major international competitions. Since 2002 he has held the Chair of singing at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. The many awards he has received in recognition of his contribution to music include the Order of the Finnish Lion, the highest award for cultural achievement in Finland. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Helsinki University and holds the title of Kammersänger in Hamburg. Tom Krause has appeared in many films, television shows, and documentaries and has made over 100 recordings, for which he has won many prizes.

After obtaining a degree in communication, Gerard Mortier (Ghent) began his career by working with director of the Flanders Festival. Between 1973 and 1980 he was successively responsible for the artistic programmes of the opera houses of Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Paris, with Christoph von Dohnányi and Rolf Liebermann as his mentors. Over the next ten years Gerard Mortier served as Director General of the Monnaie / Munt opera house. His reforms there resulted in innovative interpretations of works already in the repertoire, the introduction of new works, and the hiring of a number of young colleagues. In 1991 he took on the artistic direction of the Salzburg Festival. His radical and at times provocative transformation of a previously more traditional festival earned him many accolades. Since 2002 he has been working on the Ruhr Triennial and on a project for a building in his hometown to stage productions that combine dance, music, and media. From 2004 to 2009 he held the post of Director General of the Paris Opera. From 2010 to 2013 he was at the head of the Teatro Real in Madrid. Gerard Mortier was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Antwerp and has received a number of other honorary distinctions in Belgium and Germany. He has also been made a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in France.

Anna Tomowa-Sintow is undeniably one of the leading vocal stars on the operatic stage today. After her musical training in Sofia, the Bulgarian-born soprano made her debut at the Leipzig Opera. There and later on at the Berlin Staatsoper, she mastered an enormous repertoire ranging from the great lyrical-dramatic roles of Verdi, Puccini and the "Verismo" to the German roles of Mozart, Wagner and Strauss. Ever since her international breakthrough in Verdi's "Requiem" in Paris, Anna Tomowa-Sintow has celebrated triumphs at all the leading opera houses, festivals and concert halls of the world, from the MET to La Scala Milan, the Salzburg Festival (participating there for 19 years), Vienna, Paris, London, Chicago, Athens (Megaron), Berlin, Munich, Madrid, Barcelona, Moscow, Tokyo, etc. and with the most prestigious conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Carlos Kleiber, Karl Böhm, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, James Levine, Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta and others. She has worked with Herbert von Karajan for seventeen years, a collaboration that gave rise to a uniquely creative and mutually enriching oeuvre on the stage, in the concert hall and in the recording studio.
Her recordings with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras have set standards for generations of singers. Parallel to her stage career, she has also been pursuing an active concert agenda which is documented on CD and film, in addition to her many opera recordings. She received several awards, amongst which two Grammies for her recordings of Ariadne (under James Levine) and Don Giovanni (Donna Anna, under H.v.Karajan) and the Orphée d'or for her recording of Strauss' Four Last Songs and the Capriccio Final Monologue under Herbert von Karajan.
Her performance of Elvira's aria "Ernani, involami" marked a highlight of the MET Centennial Gala which was telecasted live worldwide and was chosen by the magazine Opera News as the best interpretation of the piece ever recorded. During the Verdi year 2001 a stamp was released in the USA featuring her as Desdemona at the Staatsoper Vienna.
"Kammersängerin" of the Vienna and Berlin State Operas, Tomowa-Sintow is renowned for her incomparable artistry and stylistic versatility - whether performing Italian, German or Russian roles. Her vast repertoire includes the leading female parts in almost all Verdi operas, such as Traviata, Aida, Amelia (Ballo & Simone Boccanegra), Leonora (Il trovatore & La forza del destino), Desdemona, Elisabetta (Don Carlo), Puccini's Tosca, Butterfly, Manon Lescaut and Turandot, Bellini's Norma, Mascagni's Santuzza (Cavalleria) and Giordano's Maddalena in Andrea Chenier, Mozart's Figaro Countess, Fiordiligi and Donna Anna (with which she made all of her US debuts - at the MET, San Francisco and Chicago), Wagner's Elisabeth, Elsa and Sieglinde, Tschaikowsky's Tatjana and Jaroslawna in Borodin's Prince Igor; last not least her legendary Strauss interpretations of the Marschallin, Ariadne, Arabella, Capriccio-Madelaine, Ägyptische Helena, Salome and the Kaiserin in "Die Frau ohne Schatten" and Korngold's "das Wunder der Heliane". Most of these operas are documented on CD and film/DVD, together with some of her finest singer colleagues, amongst which Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Piero Cappuccilli, Ruggero Raimondi, José Carreras and Sherill Milnes.
Anna Tomowa-Sintow has recently expanded her concert and recital activity and started to also give master classes. In 2007 she sang Sieglinde with triumphant success in a concert version of Walküre's 1st act and together with the NHK Symphony Orchestra she performed Strauss' "Four last songs" in Tokyo (live TV transmission) and closed the year with her very first Christmas concert together with a boy's choir and orchestra. In 2008 she appeared for the first time at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival with a frenetically cheered recital and subsequent masterclass.

The bass baritone José Van Dam is one of today’s greatest singers. Since his debut in Paris, he has been a regular guest at the world’s most prestigious opera houses and festivals (including the Paris Opera, Covent Garden, La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Metropolitan Opera, the Teatro Colón, and the festivals of Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, and Orange). His roles have included Falstaff, Simon Boccanegra, Philippe II (in Don Carlos), Don Giovanni, Boris Godunov, Amfortas (in Parsifal), the Flying Dutchman, and Wozzeck, to name but a few. His performance in the title role of Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise was warmly received in Paris and Salzburg, at its premiere. His operatic career has not prevented him from branching into oratorio and lieder. He has also sung under Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Georg Solti, and Seiji Ozawa, among others. He has appeared in films, most notably in the famous Le Maître de Musique. José Van Dam has received the titles of Kammersänger of the city of Berlin and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. In 1998, he was ennobled by King Albert II.

Jard van Nes studied the piano at the Utrecht Conservatory and singing at the Conservatory in The Hague under Herman Woltman. She has won numerous prizes : at, for example, the International Vocal Competition in Den Bosch in 1978 and the BRT’s Opera and Bel Canto Competition in 1981. She continued her studies under Christa Ludwig and Noémie Perugia. In 1984 she was awarded the Nederlandse Muziekprijs. She has given recitals all over the world, with the great orchestras and under conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Carlo Maria Giulini, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Kurt Masur, Hans Vonk, Edo de Waart, Reinbert de Leeuw, Kurt Sanderling, and Georg Solti. She was also active in opera : at the Nederlandse Operastichting, at the Holland Festival, and in Salzburg, Paris, and London. She has made numerous recordings in a wide range of repertoire. In 2000 she withdrew from public performance to concentrate on training young singers. In 2002 she was awarded the title of Knight of the Order of the Nederlandse Leeuw.