Distinguished International Jury
The jury is composed of distinguished professionals from across the international music community, including:
- Senior music examiners from renowned music examination boards
- Professors from leading universities and conservatories
- Accomplished concert artists
- Highly experienced music educators across all instruments and disciplines
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Official Board of Adjudicators
Maestro Adam Johnson - Conductor (USA)
Prof. Alan Fraser (Serbia & Canada)
Maestra Alessia Vitali - Mezzo-Soprano (Canada)
Prof. Aline Kutan (Canada)
Prof. Amelie Fradette (USA)
Prof. Andrea Cardinale (Italy)
Dr. Angela Chan (Canada) - Senior RCM Examiner (Retired)
Dr. Anna Szpilberg (Professor, Concordia University)
Prof. Ankhbayar Bayarsaikhan (Mongolia)
Prof. Avguste Antonov (USA)
Dr. Derek Yaple-Schobert (Canada)
Dr. Gabriel Prynn (Co-director, Fibonacci Trio)
Prof. Izaskun Erdocia Uranga (Spain / currently located in Hong Kong)
Prof. Janette Wolff (Canada)
Prof. Jorge Chaminé (International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, Président fondateur du CEM- Centre Européen de Musique)
Dr. Julie-Anne Derome (Canada)
Prof. Laurence Kayaleh (Canada)
Maestro Massimiliano Valenti (Italy)
Dr. MingMei Yip (USA)
Prof. Nancy Loo (Hong Kong)
Prof. Philippe Chao (USA)
Prof. Stephen Wong (Prof. of HKAPA, Chinese University (Hong Kong), Baptist University HK)
Prof. Sebastian Di Bin (Italy)
Dr. Sungho Park (South Korea)
Prof. Suzanne Benoit (France)
Prof. Takahiro Hoshino (Japan)
Prof. Teresa Tang (McGill University, University of Toronto)
Dr. Tien Feng (China)
Dr. Thomas Green (Chief Examiner of Royal Conservatory of Music)
Prof. Tom Plaunt (Canada) - Retired Chair of Music department at McGill University
Prof. Victor Khotulev (Russia)
Prof. Warren Cohen (USA)
Prof. Wei He (China)
Dr. Yeh Wei Ding (China)
Dr. Yoonie Han (South Korea, Hong Kong)
Prof. Yulia Nesterenko (Canada)
Prof. Alan Fraser (Serbia & Canada)
Maestra Alessia Vitali - Mezzo-Soprano (Canada)
Prof. Aline Kutan (Canada)
Prof. Amelie Fradette (USA)
Prof. Andrea Cardinale (Italy)
Dr. Angela Chan (Canada) - Senior RCM Examiner (Retired)
Dr. Anna Szpilberg (Professor, Concordia University)
Prof. Ankhbayar Bayarsaikhan (Mongolia)
Prof. Avguste Antonov (USA)
Dr. Derek Yaple-Schobert (Canada)
Dr. Gabriel Prynn (Co-director, Fibonacci Trio)
Prof. Izaskun Erdocia Uranga (Spain / currently located in Hong Kong)
Prof. Janette Wolff (Canada)
Prof. Jorge Chaminé (International Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, Président fondateur du CEM- Centre Européen de Musique)
Dr. Julie-Anne Derome (Canada)
Prof. Laurence Kayaleh (Canada)
Maestro Massimiliano Valenti (Italy)
Dr. MingMei Yip (USA)
Prof. Nancy Loo (Hong Kong)
Prof. Philippe Chao (USA)
Prof. Stephen Wong (Prof. of HKAPA, Chinese University (Hong Kong), Baptist University HK)
Prof. Sebastian Di Bin (Italy)
Dr. Sungho Park (South Korea)
Prof. Suzanne Benoit (France)
Prof. Takahiro Hoshino (Japan)
Prof. Teresa Tang (McGill University, University of Toronto)
Dr. Tien Feng (China)
Dr. Thomas Green (Chief Examiner of Royal Conservatory of Music)
Prof. Tom Plaunt (Canada) - Retired Chair of Music department at McGill University
Prof. Victor Khotulev (Russia)
Prof. Warren Cohen (USA)
Prof. Wei He (China)
Dr. Yeh Wei Ding (China)
Dr. Yoonie Han (South Korea, Hong Kong)
Prof. Yulia Nesterenko (Canada)
Prof. Alan Fraser - Serbia
Canadian pianist, pedagogue and author Alan Fraser is best known for his books linking piano technique to the Feldenkrais Method. A student of pioneering pedagogue Phil Cohen in Montreal and the virtuoso Kemal Gekić in Yugoslavia, he is a trained Feldenkrais practitioner who has presented at numerous
music conferences worldwide and published articles in most of the major piano journals. He has performed in North America, Russia, China, Yugoslavia and many European countries, and leads regular seminars at his Alan Fraser Piano Institute in many North American and European capitals. His latest publication is Pianimals, a new children’s method with Phil Cohen-Feldenkrais style exercises to quickly improve a young pianist’s technique and musicianship.
Maestra Alessia Vitali - Mezzo Soprano - Canada
Alessia Vitali is an Italian-Canadian mezzo-soprano from Montréal, Québec, praised for her “dedication to character and spine-tingling freedom” (emerging artist reviews). She has been heard in a wide variety of roles, including Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Ma Moss in Copland’s The Tender Land, Carmen in La Tragédie de Carmen by Bizet, and Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. In the Canadian premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park, she covered the role of Fanny Price and premiered new works by Canadian composers.
Alessia returns to Calgary Opera in the 2025–26 season for her second year in the McPhee Artist Development Program. She will appear as Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, perform dual roles as Mother/Grandmother in the family-friendly production of Little Red Riding Hood, and serve as the understudy for Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia.
During the 2024–25 season, she made her Calgary Opera mainstage debut as La Ciesca in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, sang the title role in The Witty Squirrel, and completed a role study of Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
Recent performances include Miles in The Turn of the Screw with Grand River Opera, Magdalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera by Request. She also performed Mercédès in Bizet’s Carmen with Southern Ontario Lyric Opera and Signora Guidotti in Chautauqua Opera Conservatory’s I due Timidi by Nino Rota.
In summer 2025, Alessia joins the North York Concert Orchestra as the alto soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and will be an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre, performing in the world premiere of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Additional recent highlights include Rosina with Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, Mercedes in Carmen with No Strings Theatre & Opera by Request, and the Old Lady in Candide with the North York Concert Orchestra. In summer 2022, she sang the title role in Handel’s Serse with Chicago Summer Opera and trained with the St. Andrew’s Arts Council Opera Workshop under Wendy Nielsen, Jennifer Swan, Tom Diamond, and Peter Tiefenbach.
Alessia holds a Master of Music in Opera Performance and a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Toronto, where she studied under Elizabeth McDonald. During her time there, she was awarded the Sandra H. Opera Scholarship and the ARIAS Selma & Bruno Zlemit Scholarship.
She has participated in masterclasses with renowned artists including Susan Graham, Denyce Graves, Joyce El-Khoury, and Emily D’Angelo, and completed intensive training programs with NYU, Orford Music Academy, Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, Long Reach Opera, and the Against the Grain National Opera Intensive.
Dr. Angela Chan - Canada
Recognized as the great-grand student of Alfred Cortot (from the lineage of Frederyck Chopin), Dr. Angela Chan is an accomplished concert pianist who has performed extensively in Canada, Europe, the U.S.A. China and Hong Kong, and has been featured on the Discovery Channel (Canada), Global TV, CBC, CBS, MSNBC, the Australian Television Network, CJAD, CJOH, RTHK (Radio Television Hong Kong) and other media networks. Dr. Chan’s works have also been featured in Maclean’s Magazine, La Scena Musicale, Montreal Gazette and the National Post. Angela Chan holds a Doctorate in Piano Performance, Pedagogy and Education from Concordia University, Montreal, and she is the founder and Director of Lambda School of Music and Fine Arts, an internationally recognized institution for its fine quality and reputation. Dr. Chan is also head of the piano pedagogy division at Lambda School, providing professional and career development opportunities for piano teachers. Dr. Chan has a wealth of experiences in helping students achieve their maximum potential, and has groomed numerous child prodigies in her career. In her four decades of extensive music and psychological research, Dr. Chan has unraveled the mysteries of effective and efficient teaching and learning. As a consequence, within short periods of study with Dr. Chan, many of her students have demonstrated phenomenal progress.
Dr. Chan's students have won first prizes in national and international piano competitions and have been invited to perform at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York, the Royal Albert Hall in London (United Kingdom), as well as in Amsterdam (Holland), Rome (Italy), Vienna and Salzburg (Austria), Brussels (Belgium), Bonn (Germany), China, Japan and Hong Kong. Dr. Chan's students have been highly successful under her guidance - they have been accepted by prestigious universities in the US and Canada, including the New England Conservatory, Peabody Institute of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music and the Manhattan School of Music in New York, as well as McGill University in Canada. Dr. Chan's pedagogy students have become outstanding piano teachers, whose students have won international awards.
Dr. Chan is also the author of the new Lambda piano method series developed to help pianists progress at an accelerated pace. Dr. Chan’s book A Guide to Musicality - The Art and Science on her research and experiences with innovative pedagogical approaches has also been released in July 2020. Recognized internationally as an outstanding pedagogue, Dr. Chan has been invited to adjudicate a number of major international competitions in Canada, China, Europe and in the US.
Dr. Chan is also retired senior examiner and clinician of the Royal Conservatory of Music. Dr. Chan also serves as pedagogical consultant to the iScore Project – an online pedagogical platform co-developed by the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Concordia University and Queen’s University. Dr. Chan has lectured at Concordia University, and she also serves as artistic and pedagogical consultant for a number of music and arts organizations. She is also currently pedagogical consultant to an innovative pedagogical project in China in the provinces of Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Further introductions to our distinguished panel of jurors will be published in the days ahead. Stay tuned!