Jury 2021


We are honored and fortunate to be able to present such an excellent jury of internationally recognized musicians for the 2021 competition.

Live Round JURY

Photo: Hideki Isoda

Atar Arad was born in Tel Aviv, where he began his early musical education and violin studies. In 1968 he was one of a few young artists to be selected to study in the renowned Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth under the patronage of the Queen of Belgium. In 1971, drawn by the deep, warm sound of the viola and its broad but unfamiliar repertoire, he decided to devote himself to this instrument and its music...

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Atar Arad
USA

Photo: Alrun Knauß


Violist Hariolf Schlichtig, born 1950 in Tuttlingen, is well known as chamber musician, soloist and teacher. He studied with Max Rostal and Sandor Vegh and has been member of the Cherubini Qartett for 19 years, which won several international competitions, appeared at famous venues all over the world, recorded several highly praised CDs and performed at internationally renowned festivals...

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Hariolf Schlichtig
GERMANY (chairman)

In 1997 Naoko won 1st Prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, becoming the first violist in 21 years to win this prize. She has been a welcome guest at international concert venues ever since. Prior to that she won the International Competition in Geneva in 1996 as well as winning 1st Prize at the International Instrumental Competition in Markneukirchen, Germany in 1995...

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Naoko Shimizu
JAPAN

Hailed as “The Giant of the Nordic Viola” in The Strad, Lars Anders Tomter is one of today’s most influential violists. Born in Hamar, Norway, Mr. Tomter began to play the violin and viola at a very young age and went on to study with prominent professors including Leif Jørgensen at the Oslo Music Conservatory and the Norwegian State Academy, Max Rostal, and Sándor Vegh...

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Lars Anders Tomter
NORWAY

In 2000 Danusha Waskiewicz gained international recognition, winning the ARD competition in Munich, also receiving the Brüder Busch Gesellschaft and Wilhelm Weichsler special prizes. She began her orchestral career in the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and, at only 25 years of age, she became a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Two years later she advanced to the position of Principal Viola.

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Danusha Waskiewicz
GERMANY

Angelika Merkle was a student of Prof. Hugo Steurer in Munich and England from the age of 14 until she finished school. During this time she won the first prize in the competition "Mozart for the Young" (Augsburg) and was a prize winner in the national competition "Jugend musiziert". In 1985 she began her studies at the Munich University of Music with Prof. Klaus Schilde, which she completed with distinction...

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Angelika Merkle
GERMANY (Finals only)


Screening JURY

Photo: Remi Rière

In 2012, she and her brother created the Quatuor Cavatine, winning the prestigious International Competition of Chamber music of Hamburg (ICMC) and the Second Grand Prix in the International Competition of String quartet in Banff, Canada (Bisqc).
In October 2017, she joined the Quatuor EBÈNE. In 2019 they collaborated in a recording of the complete Beethoven String Quartets...

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Marie Chilemme
FRANCE

The Viennese-born violist Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot , former student of Siegfried Führlinger (Vienna) and Heidi Castleman (USA), is described as a violist of exceptional qualitity. She is full professor (tuitulaire) of viola and chamber music at the Université de Montréal, Canada, as well as on the faculties of the Orford Music (Festival Quebec), ...

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Jutta Puchhammer-Sédillot
AUSTRIA/CANADA

Gunter Teuffel is the principal violist of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and a professor at the Stuttgart Musikhochschule. He has recorded the viola d’amore concertos of Carl Stamitz and Leos Janacek’s “Intimate Letters” in the original version with the viola d’amore, for which he was awarded the prize of the German Record Critics...

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Gunter Teuffel
GERMANY