Van Cliburn jury

For those of you who may be wondering who will be part of the panel of judges for the Van Cliburn Competition, here's the lineup:

Marcello Abbado*, former director of the Milan Conservatory and founder of the Symphonic Orchestra Verdi in Milan

Dmitri Alexeev, internationally acclaimed pianist and the first Russian artist to become the first-prize winner of the Leeds International Piano Competition (1975)

Michel Beroff, pianist and faculty member of the Paris Conservatoire, he is credited with more than fifty recordings and is establishing a career as a conductor

Hung-Kuan Chen*, chairman of the Shanghai Conservatory piano department and director of its International Piano Academy, is a gold medal winner of both the Arthur Rubinstein and Busoni Competitions and was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1991

Richard Dyer*, writer, lecturer, former chief music critic for the Boston Globe for thirty-three years, and two-time recipient of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for distinguished music criticism

John Giordano, Chairman*, jury chairman for the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition since 1973, former music director of the Fort Worth Symphony and Chamber Orchestras for twenty-seven years, music director of the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra

Joseph Kalichstein, the first chamber music adviser to the Kennedy Center and a founding member of the acclaimed Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio

Yoheved Kaplinsky*, chair of the piano department at the Juilliard School in New York, as well as professor of piano at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth

Jürgen Meyer-Josten, former head of music of Bavarian Radio in Munich for more than two decades, and director of the International Music Competition of the Broadcasting Companies of Germany in Munich since 1967

Menahem Pressler, pianist and founder of the Beaux Arts Trio

Tadeusz Strugala, prominent Polish conductor, professor at the Krakow Music Academy, and guest conductor of orchestras in Warsaw, Prague, and Vienna

(*denotes member of screening audition jury)