Professor Alfred Eickholt, chairman of the German section of the European Guitar Teachers Association (EGTA-D), will preside over the jury of the "Andrés Segovia" Competition for Young Guitarists. The jury consists of nine additional members: Dr. Fabian Hinsche from Germany, Johannes Tonio Kreusch from Germany, Professor Goran Krivokapic from Montenegro, Professor Martin Maria Krüger from Germany, Professor Sebastián Montes from Chile, Professor Jorgos Panetsos from Greece, Professor Georg Schmitz from Germany, Professor Xu Bao from China and Liying Zhu from China.
Alfred Eickholt was a guitar professor at the Cologne University of Music and Dance in Wuppertal, Germany. Almost 100 award winners in national and international contests were among his students. In addition, he was responsible for the teaching of instrument and technical didactics for many years. He will be the president of the jury for the "Andrés Segovia" Competition for Young Guitarists.
In addition to his concerts, radio broadcasts and CD productions as a soloist or member of various chamber music formations, such as his "duo da camera" with Professor André Sebald, a solo flutist for the Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra (Gürzenich Orchestra), Alfred Eickholt has also published numerous works on the didactics of his subject in cooperation with renowned publishers such as Schott, Bärenreiter, Universal Edition and Gustav Bosse. He is regularly invited to join conferences and symposia as a tutor, speaker or juror, and to give lectures, courses and seminars at universities and music schools.
Alfred Eickholt was a member of the directorate of the Wuppertal campus and chaired the expert commission on plucking instruments of the Cologne University of Music and Dance. He is the federal chairman of the German section of the European Guitar Teachers Association (EGTA-D) and expert adviser for guitar for the Association of German Music Schools. He is head of the Talent Academy of Bergische Musikschule, founded in 2019. He has been actively involved in extra-occupational education for over 30 years and has developed various concepts for suitable classes together with different academies. In the 2022/23 winter semester, he was a guest lecturer for guitar and guitar chamber music at the Kaleidos University of Music in Zurich.
Alfred Eickholt is the artistic director, jury president and a co-founder of the "Andrés Segovia" Competition for Young Guitarists, and is also the jury president for the competitions taking place in context with the international guitar festivals of Koblenz and Nürtingen.
Dr. Fabian Hinsche teaches guitar at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and at the Institute of Music at Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. He has visited numerous European, Asian, and North and Latin American countries as a concert guitarist and taken part in many international festivals.
Hinsche has won numerous awards and prizes in competitions across Europe, including renowned competitions in Spain, Italy, Greece and Germany. Many a composition by well-known composers such as Carlo Domeniconi, Jaime Zenamon, Konstantin Vassiliev, Annette Kruisbrink, Gerard Drozd, Jürg Kindle, Lars Wüller, Thomas Allem LeVines, Frank Arthur Wallace and Michael Borner have been dedicated to Fabian Hinsche as a soloist or as member of "Mare Duo". Hinsche has recorded several CDs, including for the prestigious Naxos label, and has recorded for radio broadcasts in Germany, Austria, Denmark and Russia.
Fabian Hinsche studied guitar with Professor Alfred Eickholt, Professor Carlo Marchione and Professor Hubert Käppel. His dissertation on the subject of media culture analysis focused on the aesthetics of musical interpretation. Hinsche is the editor of the "EGTA Journal", a German guitar journal. He holds presentations and publishes work on historical, guitar-related and aesthetic subjects and has edited many sheet music editions for various publishing houses.
Website: https://www.fabian-hinsche.de
Johannes Tonio Kreusch studied music at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and the New Yorker Juilliard School of Music. Since his solo debut at the Carnegie Recital Hall in 1996, his concert tours as a soloist and chamber musician have led him to many European, US, Far East and Latin American cities.
His intense cooperation with composers has led to the creation of many new pieces of guitar music. Johannes Tonio Kreusch regularly works with renowned musicians from the fields of classical and improvised music, such as Markus Stockhausen, Giora Feidman, Klaus Doldinger, FM Einheit or Cornelius Claudio Kreusch, and with fellow guitarists such as Andy York, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Máximo Diego Pujol or Badi Assad. His debut concert at Carnegie Hall together with Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor at the Metropolitan Opera, was praised as a "revelation" by the New York Times. His chamber music duo together with violinist Doris Orsan has been greatly successful for many years now, and Johannes Tonio Kreusch has produced many highly acclaimed CDs and radio broadcasts.
His recordings extend beyond the standard repertoire, which ranges from Johann Sebastian Bach's lute music to the Villa Lobos Études, and even include first-ever recordings of contemporary music and own compositions. The French music journal Classica Répertoire awarded his CD recording of the Villa Lobos Études the "10 de Répertoire" prize and called it the "new standard of reference in recording since the legendary recordings by Narciso Yepes and Julian Bream".
In addition to his activities as a concert guitarist, Tonio Kreusch teaches in seminars and master classes in Germany and abroad. He has authored many publications on guitar didactics and is the artistic director of the international guitar festivals in Hersbruck and Wertingen. Together with Cornelius Claudio Kreusch, he manages the "Look into the Future" music festival for the town of Burgshausen, and together, the two established the "Ottobrunner Konzerte" series of concerts near Munich in 2008. For their successful artistic direction of the series, they were awarded the Tassilo culture award issued by Süddeutsche Zeitung in 2012.
Website: https://www.johannestoniokreusch.com
Guitar virtuoso Goran Krivokapić was lauded as "one of the most sought-after present-day guitarists." He has won prizes in 19 international competitions, and his work concentrates on developing the repertoire for guitar, largely by creating his own transcriptions and cooperating with composers.
Goran Krivokapić is an active soloist, chamber musician and tutor. He has performed across Europe, in North and South America, in Asia, Africa and Russia and has played at large festivals or in concert halls such as the Tschaikowsky Hall, at Palais Lobkowicz, the Concertgebouw or the Auditorio Conde Duque. Together with Danijel Cerović, he founded the "Montenegrin Guitar Duo", a leading guitar ensemble that has performed on four continents and provided a highly acclaimed first recoding of the entire English Suites by J.S. Bach for Naxos.
As a passionate tutor, Goran Krivokapić has held master classes and lectures at universities and festivals around the globe. He has taught at the Koblenz International Guitar Academy, the Lemmens Institute, and at the Prince Claus Conservatoire, currently teaches at Detmold University of Music, and is a professor at Cologne University of Music and Dance.
Website: https://goran-krivokapic.com
Martin Maria Krüger studied guitar with Siegfried Behrend and completed artistic studies in guitar with Dieter Kirsch and percussion with Siegfried Fink in Würzburg. Additionally, he studied conducting with Günter Wich and Hannes Reinartz. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician, in particular as a duo together with Siegfried Behrend, on several continents.
Krüger directed the conservatories (Konservatorien) in Würzburg and Munich, which were integrated into the local music academies (Musikhochschulen). In 2009, he became honorary professor for guitar and cultural policy at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, where he has continued to teach cultural policy since his retirement. Krüger has been President of the Deutscher Musikrat (German Music Council) since 2003 and Chairman of the German Federal Government's Music Fund for Contemporary Music of all genres since its foundation in 2016.
Sebastián Montes has won over 30 international awards, both as a soloist and as member of the Duo KM. He is one of the leading guitarists of his generation and a proponent of innovative concert formats and programs in his role as artist or festival director. He cooperates closely with young composers and has commissioned and premiered numerous works, including two for two guitars and an orchestra and for a guitar and a choir.
After completing his course of studies in Santiago de Chile, he continued to study in Germany as a DAAD scholar. He passed his concert examination as a soloist with Professor Frank Bungarten in Hanover, and his subsequent examination in chamber music after completing his Master's degree at HMDK Stuttgart under Ivo and Sofia Kaltchey. Immediately upon concluding his studies in Germany, he was appointed as a professor at Universidad Católica de Chile in 2012.
After returning to Germany in 2017, he began teaching at Nuremberg University of Music. In 2020, he moved to the vocational school of Dinkelsbühl. Since 2022, he has been a guitar music professor at HfM Saar. In addition to his work as a concert pianist and lecturer, Sebastián Montes is passionate about strengthening the guitar's position in the classical music scene and promoting young guitarists. This motivated him to establish the Reutlinger Gitarrennacht festival in 2011 and to become the artistic director of the international guitar festival of Nürtingen.
Website: https://www.duokm.com
Jorgos Panetsos has taught at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna since 1999. He had previously been a teacher the Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Arts in Vienna since 1984. He was a lecturer for "Music psychology aspects of instrument playing" at the Institute of Music Psychology at the University of Vienna, and taught master classes as a guest lecturer at the University of Music in Graz, at the Madison University of Music in the USA, at the Bratislava and Rostock universities of music, at the Beijing Central Conservatory, as well as at some of the most important international festivals.
Jorgos Panetsos was born in Athens in 1961. He studied classical guitar at the Athens Conservatoire College of Music and continued his studies with Professor Luise Walker at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where he passed his concert examination with unanimous distinction. He then attended master classes with David Russel and Oscar Ghiglia in Siena (Diploma di merito). In 1995, Professor Konrad Ragossnig commented on the "Spanish Music" CD produced by him: "I would like to express my sincere and heartfelt admiration for your recording. For the translucency of your play, the exceptional clarity of tone, your exhilarating musical arrangement (phrasing, articulation, dynamics, the healthy portion of tempo rubato). It is a joy to listen to you, to a musician."
In 1998, he obtained the academic degree of "Magister der Künste" (Magister Artium). His concert activities took him to 26 countries including the United States, China, Korea, Vietnam, Venezuela, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, India and Thailand. He performed both as a soloist and together with orchestras such as the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Orquesta Municipal de Caracas, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Kielce (Poland), the Zilina Slovak Sinfonietta, and the First Women's Chamber Orchestra of Austria. Additionally, he is a member of the "Vereinigte Bühnen Wien" orchestra, which plays at all Vienna opera houses. He also played with the ORF Symphonic orchestra, contributing, among other things, to the world premiere of E. Krenek's work "Opus sine nomine" in the Great Hall of the Vienna Musikverein under the conductor Ulf Schirmer. This was followed by invitations from the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia and the Central Conservatory of Beijing as well as a number of chamber music performances, together with musicians such as René Kubelik (violin) and Claudia Eder (mezzo-soprano). In 1998, he performed together with Paul Badura Skoda in Vienna. He gave seminars, solo recitals, master classes and held lectures at more than 20 important festivals and concert series such as Jeunesse Musicale, the Vienna Festival, Bonner Meisterkonzerte, El Hatillo Festival in Caracas, Beijing International Guitar Festival, Liechtensteiner Gitarrentage (ligita) and the Iserlohn International Guitar Symposium.
Jorgos Panetsos is currently the Vice President of the Austrian section of the European String Teachers Association (ESTA), and founder and artistic director of "Forum Gitarre Wien", an annual guitar festival that has been running since 1990 and has since gained wide international renown. In 2009, he was the first guitarist to hold a lecture at the 17th international ESTA conference in Vienna, entitled: "Learning by heart by awareness integration." Jorgos Panetsos frequently acts a juror at international competitions such as the "Andrés Segovia" International Competition for Young Guitarists, the J.K. Merz Competition, the Mauro Giuliani Competition, or the Utna Hora Biennial Competition. He is also an editor for Universal Edition in Vienna.
Georg Schmitz comes from Neuwied in the Rhineland region of Germany. After graduating from a Christian high school in Lahnstein, he studied at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory and at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. He was a participant at the Académie d'été des Ircam in Paris several times.
Apart from classical and contemporary music, Georg Schmitz was also interested in popular music and pursued this interest as an arranger, band member and musical director in a wide variety of productions. Together with the painter Juir Keuthen, he created musical performances: "Operation Hochhalten", a work commissioned by the Federal State of Rhineland Palatinate, and "Robot", commissioned by the German-Polish Society, are performances for a choir, soloists, strings, wind instruments, guitar, jazz bands and electronic music. His works for solo guitar include: "Fantasy" (Edition Margaus), "Last Encores" (Chanterelle), "Toccata & Elegie" (Chanterelle) and "Wie die Nacht übers Land kommt" ("How the night covers the land", Guitarissimo Publications Sweden).
He was awarded the Hermann Wedell Prize in 2014. In 2021, he won the City of Koblenz Culture Award. Professor Georg Schmitz is the founder and director of the Koblenz International Guitar Festival & Academy and teaches in Koblenz and at Mainz School of Music.
Professor Xu Bao is the first classic guitar tutor in any of the eleven Chinese music schools to be awarded the title of a professor. He currently heads the Department of Accordion and Contemporary Instruments at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music.
In 1991, he won the First Prize in the national classical guitar competition organized by the Shanghai Music Publishing House. Unter his auspices, students have won more than 30 awards in big international competitions and over 20 in large national contests.
Professor Xu has been a jury member for many well-known guitar competitions, including the Daejeon International Guitar Competition in Korea, the International Guitar Competition in Thailand, the Alhambra International Guitar Competition in Spain, the Pittaluga Alexandria International Guitar Competition in Italy and the Koblenz International Guitar Competition, the Anna Amalia Competition for Young Guitarists and the Iserlohn International Guitar Competition in Germany.
He was also invited as a speaker by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Detmold University of Music and Münster University of Music. Professor Xu Bao has organized almost 100 concerts and lectures at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, to which he invited renowned classical guitarists including Leo Brower, David Russell and Manuel Barrueco.
Liying Zhu first won four First Prizes at international competitions, including the International Twents Gitaar Concours (Netherlands), Nürtingen Guitar Festival (Germany) and Koblenz International Guitar Competition (Germany). Since then, she has concentrated on performing as a solo artist or with various chamber music ensembles in many different Asian, European and Latin American countries and the United States.
Liying Zhu was born in Kunming in the Chinese province of Yunnan, and her exceptional talent as a guitarist already showed when she was just a child. At the age of 11, she was accepted into the class of China’s leading guitar teacher, Chen Zhi, in Beijing. She already successfully competed at contests in Los Angeles and Vienna while she was still studying. From 2013 to 2015, she completed her master’s degree as a student of Professor Alfred Eickholt at the Wuppertal University of Music and Dance, an passed her concert examination with distinction in 2018. At the same time, she completed a course of studies in instrument didactics, obtaining her bachelor’s degree in 2021.
In 2015, Liying Zhu gave her debut at Carnegie Hall in New York. Both her audience and the specialized press praise the touching emotionality and expressiveness of her performance, in addition to its imaginary power and virtuosity. Her highly differentiated interpretations never fail to fascinate her listeners. In 2016, her first solo CD entitled „Besondere Begegnungen“ (Special Encounters) was published, featuring works by Agustin Barrios Mangore, Benjamin Britten, Napoleon Coste, Anton Diabelli and John Dowland.
In addition to giving concerts, Liying Zhu is a sought-after lecturer and juror at international festivals and competitions.
Website: https://www.liyingzhu.com/
Website: https://www.liyingzhu.com/
