Jury Members

• Václav Hudeček – Chairman of the Jury, violin virtuoso
  
  Patří mezi nejvýznamnější české houslové virtuosy. V letech 1959 a 1964-1968 byl nejprve soukromým žákem prof. PhDr. Josefa Micky a později jeho studentem na Pražské konzervatoři. Na podzim roku 1967, tedy ve svých patnácti letech, vystoupil na koncertu v Londýně s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra a tím zahájil svou mezinárodní kariéru. Je jediným českým žákem legendárního houslisty D. Oistracha. Pražskou HAMU absolvoval ve třídě Prof. Václava Snítila. Od svého londýnského debutu vystupoval po celém světě na nejprestižnějších pódiích (Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Suntory Hall, Osaka Festival Hall, Sydney Opera), s nejlepšími světovými orchestry (Berliner Philharmoniker, Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, NHK Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Moskevská státní filharmonie a další). Václav Hudeček se ovšem stará i o mladou generaci houslistů, a to jak každoročním pořádáním letních houslových kurzů v Luhačovicích na Akademii V. Hudečka, tak i představováním těch nejlepších mladých houslistů jako hostů na svých koncertech v rámci tradičních vánočních turné, nebo na festivalu „Svátky hudby“ v Praze. V roce 2007 obdržel z rukou prezidenta Václava Klause vysoké vyznamenání "Za zásluhy o stát" v oblasti kultury. V roce 2012 získal při příležitosti životního jubilea stříbrnou medaili hlavního města Prahy z rukou primátora Doc. MUDr. Bohuslava Svobody. O dva roky později se stal čestným občanem Prahy 2. V roce 2015 obdržel od prezidenta Italské republiky prestižní vyznamenání Řád rytíře italské hvězdy „Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d‘Italia“
  www.vaclav-hudecek.cz
• Milan Vítek - Oberlin Conservatory of Music, USA
  Milan Vitek has been professor of violin at Oberlin Conservatory since 2001, and is Emeritus Professor at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Denmark. He was a professor at the Royal Danish Music Academy in Copenhagen from 1974 to 2001, and a guest professor at the Music Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden, from 1992 to 2001. Before moving to Denmark in 1968, Prof. Vitek was a founding member, concertmaster and soloist with the Prague Chamber Soloists conducted by Vaclav Neumann, member of the Czech Nonet, chamber ensemble of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the piano trio Pro Camera. In Denmark, he was alternate concert master with the Danish Royal Orchestra and a founder of the Danish Chamber Orchestra. Following two years as a professor and a member of the Czech String Quartet at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, Milan Vitek returned to Denmark in 1974 to become Professor at the Royal Danish Music Academy. During this time, he co-founded the Trio Pro Arte, which made acclaimed recordings of the complete Brahms trios and trios by Smetana and Mendelssohn for the BIS label. He also founded the Royal Danish Conservatory Chamber Orchestra giving concerts with performers like Yehudi Menuhin, J. P. Rampal, and Michel Debost. Prof. Vitek is much in demand as a teacher at master classes such as Aldeburgh (England), Keshet Eilon (Israel), Yokosuka Festival (Japan) a Yuriko Kuronuma Academy (Mexico City), Weikersheim (Germany) and Savonlinna (Finland), Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu Conservatories. He has adjudicated international violin competitions in Denmark - where he is President of the Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition - Germany, Japan, Estonia and Italy. His students are winners and laureates of among others, the Carl Nielsen, J. Kocian, Heino Eller, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, Washington International, Yehudi Menuhin International, the Jean Sibelius Violin Competitions and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Professor Vitek was also in much demand as a conductor of orchestras in all of Scandinavia, Czech Republic and Switzerland. Milan Vitek is Artistic director of his three-week summer master class program for strings in Litomysl, Czech Republic, which he founded in 1996. https://www.oberlin.edu/milan-vitek
• Pavel Hůla - artistic director of Praga Camerata chamber orchestra
  Czech violinist, won two editions of the Kocian violin competition and became laureate of Czech Radio´s Concertino Praga International competition in the piano trio category. He did his studies in the class of professor Hlounova at the Prague Academy of Music. Pavel Hula is a versatile violinist, successfully combining the twin careers of soloist and chamber player. He has worked with the czech leading orchestras, including the Czech Philharmonic under Vaclav Neumann. He has made solo appearances in a number of European countries and Japan and has made several radio recordings. His recording of Duo by Z.Kodály and E.Schulhoff (together with cellist M.Kanka) was awarded Diapason d´Or prize. Since 1975 to 2011 Pavel Hula has been the leader of the Kocian Quartet, with which he has appeared in over 3200 concerts in 32 countries and recorded five dozen CDs for Denon, Supraphon and Orfeo. In 1996 Kocian Quartet started a cooperation exclusive with the CD label Praga Digitals, distrib. Harmonia Mundi with many interesting projects. In 1997 the Kocian Quartet was awarded the Grand Prix Charles Cross in Paris for the complete recording of Paul Hindemith´s String Quartets. Since 2010 to 2015 he has been first violinist of the Pražák Quartet.

  Since 2001 Pavel Hula is an artistic director of Praga Camerata chamber orchestra (www.pragacamerata.com) and is now beginning to devote himself also to conducting and since 2006 he is also Professor at the Academy of Music in Prague. He is also jury member of different violin competitions.

• Jan Mráček – Czech violinist
  Czech violinist Jan Mráček was born in 1991 in Pilsen and began studying violin at the age of 5, most re-cently under the guidance of the former Vienna Symphony concert master Jan Pospíchal.As a teenager he enjoyed his first successes, winning numerous competitions, participating in the master clas-ses of Maestro Václav Hudeček - the beginning of a long and fruitful association. He was the youngest Laure-ate of the Prague Spring International Festival competition in 2010, and in 2011 was the youngest soloist in the history of the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2014 he took first prize at Vienna’s Fritz Kreisler In-ternational Violin Competition at the Vienna Konzerthaus.He has performed as soloist with the Kuopio Sym-phony Orchestra and Romanian Radio Symphony, both under Sascha Goetzel, Lappeenranta City Orchestra (Finland), Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK), Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra and almost all Czech regional orchestras.
• Pavel Kudelásek – Prague Conservatoire, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
  
  Pavel Kudelásek graduated from the Prague Conservatoire in the class of Jaroslav Foltýn and from the Prague Academy in that of Antonín Moravec. He completed his studies with Kato Havas. He was instrumental in setting up the violin department of the České Budějovice Conservatoire. Since 1993 he has been professor of violin at the Prague Conservatoire and has also taught at the Prague Music School. He has written a number of musicological works (eg. “On the Performance of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas”). He is a frequent member of the jury in both domestic and international competitions and regularly gives violin masterclasses. Apart from his solo career, Pavel Kudelásek is a sought-after chamber player, having held posts in a number of outstanding ensembles (Czech Chamber Orchestra, Dvořák Quartet, Pro Arte Antiqua) and having collaborated with the Czech Nonet. In 2006 he was given the Rudolf II Award by the Masaryk Academy of Arts for promoting Czech music.
  www.triartmanagement.cz
• Jiří Panocha – Leader of the Panocha Quartet, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
  Jiří Panocha's violin career began at an early age. In 1972 he was a prize-winner at the Karajan Competition in Berlin and was appointed leader of the International Student Orchestra under Karajan's baton. He has given concerts in most countries of Europe, as well as in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan and elsewhere. In 1968, as a student at the Prague Conservatoire, he founded the Panocha Quartet under the guidance of Josef Micka. This young ensemble then moved on to the Prague Academy of Musical Arts. Under Panocha's leadership, the quartet has since travelled the world and made innumerable recordings for both Czech and international record companies. As professor of violin at the Prague Academy, Jiří Panocha is committed to bringing up a new generation of young violinists. The uninterrupted existence of the Panocha Quartet, who have played in an unchanged line-up since 1971, is testament to his skills in bringing together and leading a group of musicians.
  Panochovo-kvarteto
• Milan Puklický – Music director of the Czech radio
  Milan Puklický was born on 8 April 1952 in Prague. His first violin teacher was Ferdinand Gotwald, a pupil of Otakar Ševčík. He studied at the Prague Conservatoire, then graduated from the Academy of Music in the class of Josef Vlach. Before 1985 he performed as a soloist and member of various chamber ensembles both in Europe and America. He broadened his musical education through private studies of composition and conducting. Since 1985 he has worked as a music director for the then Czechoslovak, now Czech Radio; since 1995 he has followed that career exclusively. In that capacity he has worked for a number of Czech and foreign record companies as well as many ensembles and soloists. He has collaborated on many recordings, some of which were awarded important international prizes – in recent years the complete orchestral works of Leoš Janáček and the 3 Fragments from Martinů´s opera Julietta, both with Sir Charles Mackerras, and a recording of the Smetana piano trio, a BBC Recording of the Year.
• Pavel Zejfart – Member of the Panocha Quartet, ZUŠ J. L. Dusika, Čáslavav
  Pavel Zejfart was initially torn between singing, acting and playing the piano. As a child he appeared as singer and actor in Hans Krása's opera Brundibár, in a television production of Dickens' Oliver Twist and in Vaclav Krška's film adaptation of Turgenev's Torrents of Spring. He began playing the violin only at the age of eleven, and following private tuition with Josef Micka, later became his pupil at the Prague Conservatoire. In 1968 he joined, as 2nd violinist, the newly-founded Panocha Quartet. Pavel Zejfart studied chamber music with Raphael Hillyer in Weimar and concluded his studies at the Prague Academy in the class of Nora Grumlíková. As member of the now renowned quartet he has won numerous awards – the Prague Spring Competition (1975), the Medaille d'Or (Bordeaux 1976), the Sterne der Woche (Munich 1982),a Golden Disc (Supraphon 1982), the Grand Prix d'Academie Charles Cros (Paris 1983) and the prestigious MIDEM Classical Award (Cannes 1995). At various times he has taught at the Lake District Summer School of Music in England, at Yale University in Norfolk, Virginia and at the Kusatsu Academy in Japan. Panochovo-kvarteto