“Piano competitions share certain similarities, as their primary aim is to discover the finest pianists among the entrants. Nonetheless, I hope that the atmosphere of the Ljubljana Festival International Piano Competition 2026 evolves into a more innovative experience, guided by the esteemed musicians on the jury, allowing young pianists to fully showcase their talents. Our competition already occupies a distinguished position, having been established based on a renowned and prestigious European music festival. In this setting, each contestant has the chance to shine at a significant musical event, which undoubtedly provides a considerable advantage to our winners. The initial competition was a tremendous success, offering the winners significant opportunities to make their mark on the global stage. This year, we have seen an increase in applications for the competition, and I can confidently state that the quality of the young musicians is once again outstanding. I extend my best wishes to all the participants!”

Epifanio Comis has performed with numerous world class orchestras including the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra of Bucharest, Catania Massimo Bellini Theatre Orchestra, Sicilian Symphony Orchestra, the Osaka and Kyoto Symphony Orchestras. Comis gives masterclasses in important academies and universities like Manhattan School of Music, Chopin Academy Warsaw, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Moscow and Bucharest Music Academy. He performed in prestigeous halls such as Discoteca di Stato di Roma, Sala delle Erbe di Milano, Steinway Hall in New York, Symphony Hall in Osaka, Carnegie Hall in New York and many others. He is a very acclaimed professor. His students achieve top prizes in the most important world piano competitions such as Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition, Queen Elisabeth Competition, Chopin Competition Warsaw, International Tchaikovsky Competition etc. Comis has a varied career as soloist and conductor and he is a professor at Vincenzo Bellini State Conservatory in Catania where he is also director.

Alberto Nose` is one of the most awarded piano artists of his generation. His artistic development has been also enriched by studying with M. Pollini, M. Perahia, A. Jasinski, P. Badura-Skoda, M. Beroff, and A. Vardi, among others. Nose` has received the top prizes in competitions such as the Monte-Carlo Piano Masters, New York Concert Artists, Paloma O’Shea in Santander, Long-Thibaud in Paris, Maj Lind in Helsinki, and Busoni in Bolzano. He was laureate at the Chopin Competition Warsaw in 2000, which opened the door to an international career as a soloist as well as performing with major orchestras (London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, Madrid Symphony Orchestra) in venues like Carnegie Hall, the Southbank Centre, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Théâtre du Châtelet and Pleyel Hall in Paris, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires, La Fenice Theatre in Venice, and Santa Cecilia Hall in Rome. He has been a jury member in many international piano competitions held in cities such as Kyiv, Tbilisi, New York, Hong Kong, Helsinki, Budapest, Graz, Ljubljana, and Warsaw, and he is also co-founder of the International Amadeus Competition in Lazise, Italy. Alberto Nose` is currently a professor of piano at the Verona Conservatory of Music, and is a member of the faculty of the International Accademia Amadeus in Valeggio sul Mincio, Italy.

The acclaimed Slovenian pianist Tomaž Petrač graduated with distinction from the Ljubljana Academy of Music in the class of D. Tomšič Srebotnjak. He went on to study in Basel for four years, at the end of which he received a concert diploma in the class of R. Buchbinder. He received the 1988 Prešeren Award from the University of Ljubljana. To date, he has performed at many concerts at home and abroad. As a soloist, he has performed in many famous cultural centres and halls with various orchestras such as the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the SNG Opera and Ballet Ljubljana Orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Maribor Chamber Orchestra, the DSS Soloist Chamber Orchestra, the Belgrade Faculty of Music Symphony Orchestra, the Varaždin Chamber Orchestra, the SNG Maribor Symphony Orchestra, and with conductors A. Nanut, M. Munih, M. Letonja, S. Robinson, H. Rodmann, N. Alexeev etc. He often gives concerts with acclaimed Slovenian and international musicians. Petrač is currently a Full Professor at the Ljubljana Academy of Music.

“It is a great pleasure for me to welcome and warmly greet all the competitors to the Ljubljana Festival International Piano Competition 2026. I wish full success to all young pianists in their performances, so that they may show their exceptional talent and creativity. Knowing that the reward for all of them – candidates and winners – will mean a unique moment in their careers, which they will never forget, I wish good luck to all the participants.”

The Slovenian pianist and Emeritus Professor Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak has for many years been considered Slovenia’s No. 1 cultural ambassador. At age seventeen she graduated with distinction at the famous Juilliard School in New York. She then spent two years studying with the famous pianist Arthur Rubinstein. Her magnificent piano career with over 5,000 concerts has taken her to the most prestigious world concert halls, performing in recitals and with major, great orchestras and famous conductors. Her repertoire includes works for piano from the Baroque to the 21^st century and around 50 piano concertos. Since 1987 she recorded almost 100 CDs for different record labels. As a young pianist she won many international piano competitions and is now a jury member of many important international piano competitions. She has been teaching at the Ljubljana Academy of Music since 1966. In 2013 the University of Ljubljana conferred her the title of Emeritus Professor. For her artistic achievements she has received numerous prizes and awards both at home and abroad, including the Prešeren Prize, Župančič Prize, Golden Lyre, Avnoj award etc. In 2018 the President of Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor conferred her the Golden Order of Merit for her life’s work and an exceptional opus of performances in Slovenia and in the world.

Ricardo Castro is a Swiss-Brazilian pianist, educator, conductor and cultural leader whose career combines international artistic recognition with a distinguished role in musical and social development. Exceptionally admitted at the age of five to the School of Music of the Federal University of Bahia, he made his concerto debut at ten. In 1984 he moved to Europe for advanced studies at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève with Maria Tipo (piano) and Arpad Gerecz (conducting), later completing his training in Paris under Dominique Merlet. Ex-aequo winner of the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1987, his international career reached further prominence in 1993 when he won the First Prize of the Leeds International Piano Competition, becoming the first Latin American laureate in its history. Since then, he has performed worldwide both as pianist and conductor, collaborating with major orchestras and distinguished musical partners. His discography includes recordings for BMG/Arte Nova and Deutsche Grammophon. Since 2020 he has served as Professor of Piano and Head of the Keyboard Department at the Haute École de Musique de Genève. In 2007, invited by the Government of the State of Bahia, Castro founded NEOJIBA, an internationally recognized program uniting artistic excellence and social transformation. In 2013 he became the first Brazilian Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Barry Douglas has established a major international career since winning the Gold Medal at the 1986 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Moscow. As Artistic Director of Camerata Ireland and the Clandeboye Festival, he continues to celebrate his Irish heritage whilst also maintaining a busy international touring schedule. Barry regularly plays in recitals throughout the world, he has previously given concerts with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Staatskapelle, Hallé Orchestra, L’Orchestre National de France, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Barry Douglas received the CBE in the 2002 New Year’s Honours List for services to music. Barry is an exclusive Chandos recording artist. He also completed recording the full works for solo piano by Johannes Brahms, and he is exploring Irish folk music through his own arrangements as well.

As a musical prodigy, discovered by Dimitri Kabalewsky, Pavel Gililov completed his piano studies at the Leningrad Conservatory with honours. While still a student, he won the National Piano Competition in Moscow in 1972. He is the winner of the Chopin Competition Warsaw and the “G. B. Viotti” International Music Competition in Vercelli. From 1979 to 2013 he taught as a Professor of Piano at the Cologne University of Music and Dance, and since 2007 he has been a Professor of Piano at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. He has participated in numerous festivals in Newport, Barcelona, Edingburg, Schleswig Holstein, at Salzburg Festival, Berliner Festwochen and many more. In addition to his solo career, he also devotes himself to the field of chamber music. Pavel Gililov was a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Piano Quartet, and P. Amoyal, D. Sitkovetsky, T. Zimmerman and M. Maisky were his regular chamber music partners. In 2005, he founded the Telekom Beethoven Competition in Bonn, and has since been its artistic director and president of the jury. He leads numerous international masterclasses worldwide, and is a sought after juror in prestigious competitions. Several works by contemporary composers have been dedicated to Gililov and also premiered by him.

Yaron Kohlberg ignites audiences through his performances, develops creative programming, and supports emerging artists. While his audiences are often found in famous venues (Carnegie Hall, the Kremlin, Beijing’s Forbidden City, Kennedy Space Center, and Mexico City’s Palace of Fine Arts among others), Kohlberg reaches beyond the concert-going public to engage new audiences with classical music in atypical places – a hotel lobby in Marrakech and a community center in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. The winner of 10 international prizes and the 2007 silver medallist of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, Kohlberg is also Artistic Director of Piano Cleveland, the organising body of the competition. He has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic and Jerusalem Symphony Orchestras, the Beijing and Chengdu Symphony Orchestras, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and the Palermo Teatro Massimo Orchestra in Italy, working with the conductors T. Sondergard, J. Ling, R. Kofman, E. Shao, St. Byess and R. McAdams. He was also the artistic director of a cover band’s concert tour, playing the works of his beloved alternative rock group, Radiohead.

Andrea Lucchesini first drew international attention aged only 18 when he won the Dino Ciani Piano Competition at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 1983. He was awarded the Chigiana Music Academy International Prize in 1994 by European musicologists – the only Italian musician amongst such artists as Gidon Kremer, Evgeny Kissin and Tabea Zimmermann. In the early 1990s, Lucchesini’s encounter with Luciano Berio led to him being offered his debut performance with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the London BBC Proms in Berio’s Concerto II – (Echoing Curves) for Piano and Two Instrumental Groups. In 2008 he became an Academic of the National Academy of St Cecilia and took over the artistic direction of the Fiesole School of Music, on the invitation of its founder Piero Farulli. From 2018 to 2021 he was art director of the Roman Philharmonic Academy, and in 2023 he was appointed Accademico Filarmonico. Since 2022 he has been the artistic director of the Amici della Musica di Firenze. Lucchesini regularly performs with major orchestras worldwide under some of the most renowned conductors of our time: S. Bychkov, D. Gatti, R. Chailly, J. Temirkanov, G. Gavezzeni, D. R. Davies, C. Dutoit, Z. Mehta, G. Gelmetti, G. Sinopoli and T. Guschlbauer.

Ick-Choo Moon is the recipient of numerous awards including the Concours Musical International de Montréal and Concours de Genève, and the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition at the Juilliard School. In 1989, he gave a critically acclaimed New York recital debut at the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall as winner of the William Petschek Award. Since making his US debut with the Minnesota Orchestra under S. Skrowaczewski, Moon has performed in many countries including USA, Canada, the UK, Russia, Japan and South Korea. He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and at Indiana University with G. Sebők, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees with highest distinction. He received his doctor of musical arts degree from the Juilliard School, where he worked with S. Gorodnitzki. Currently Professor Emeritus of Piano at Seoul National University in Korea, Moon has also taught at UCLA and at the University of Southern California. He has taught and performed at the Brevard Music Center, the Chautauqua Institute, Festival MusicAlp in France and at numerous festivals in South Korea. He has also been a jury member in several international competitions, such as the Cleveland, Franz Liszt, Seoul, and Honens competitions etc.

Leonel Morales is a professor at the Sommerakademie in Salzburg and at the Alfonso X el Sabio Univeristy in Madrid, Exclusive Artist of Yangtze River Piano, Artistic Director and Founder of the Maria Herrero in Granada and the Spanish Composer International Piano Competition and academic member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría in Seville. He graduated from the University of Havana under the tutelage of F. Fernandez. He carried out postgraduate studies with D. Voskresensky and J. Latainer. He gives masterclasses in places such as the Mozarteum in Salzburg, as well as in South Korea, Italy, Mexico, France, Belgium, and China. He was awarded the prestigious “Tasto D´Argento 2008” for his international career. On tours in the USA with the Spanish National Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, he has had the opportunity to play in the most important concert halls in North America, such as Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. Over his career he has worked with many major Spanish and international conductors such as F. de Burgos, E. García Asensio, M. Tardue, G. Pehlivaniam, F. Krager, Y. Traub, P. Baleff, E. Shao etc.

A classically trained pianist and artist manager, Samir Nikočević maintains an evergrowing network of relationships with musicians, orchestras and presenters in both the United States and Europe. In his role as the head of external affairs for Arabella Arts based in New York City, he enjoys identifying opportunities for professional advancement and artistic exchanges in all formats. He received his degree from the Academy of Music at the University of Zagreb, where he studied with H. Gusek. Nikočević moved to the United States in 2000 to study with acclaimed pianist P. Frankl. He is the former board chairman of the Savannah Philharmonic as well as a board member at the American Composers Orchestra and American Traditions Vocal Competition. Most recently he served on the jury for Olga Kern Piano Competition and Cleveland International Piano Competition.

Zhe Tang's performances with the China Philharmonic Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra were broadcast by the Chinese National Television and Radio, reaching approximately 900 million people. His concerts have been heard on radio and television including, Chinese National TV and Radio, the BBC, Polish National Television, Oriental TV, WQXR of New York, and WFMT of Chicago, among others. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Tang is Professor of Piano in Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He has also been appointed as the Vice Dean of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Director of Teaching and Research for the Piano Department, Chair of the Piano Department for the Middle School Affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Associate General Secretary of Chinese Pianists’ Association, Chair of Shanghai Professional Pianists’ Society, Artistic Director of Shanghai Spring International Piano E-Competition, and Artistic Director of Shanghai International Music Festival & Piano Competition for Young Artists, among others. He has been on the jury for international piano competitions, including Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, International Jeunesses Musicales Competition Belgrade, Telekom Beethoven Competition, Cleveland International Piano Competition, Georges Enescu International Competition, and many others.

Gianni Eugenio Tangucci started his professional career as a Maestro Collaboratore at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, where, starting in 1970, he performed artistic and executive functions. From 1983 to 1985 he was the Assistant Artistic Director at the Teatro alla Scala for two seasons. From 1985 to 1987 he was the Artistic Director of the Teatro Comunale Bologna. For the 1987/88 and 1988/89 seasons he was the Artistic Director of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, after working as an Artistic Consultant at the Teatro dell’Opera of Genoa. From April 2000 he was the Artistic Director of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. From December 2000 to 2006 he was the Artistic Director of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. As a teacher, Gianni Tangucci has given a course at the Fiesole School of Music; a course about the history and methods of artistic-musical management at the University of Parma, Department of Musicology; a master’s course in management of entertainment at SDA Bocconi School of Management in Milan; various masterclasses at the Festival Internazionale della Cultura of Bergamo, at the Scuola dell’Opera of the Teatro Comunale Bologna and at the Festival of Itria Valley. Since January 2016 he has been the Artistic Coordinator of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Accademy.