JURY
KAI BUMANN
conductor / chairman of the Jury
Kai Bumann was born in 1961 in Berlin. He studied conducting at the Berlin Higher School of Art. From 1986-1992 he collaborated with many opera theaters in Germany where he was musical director for the premieres of such operas as Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (D. Shostakovich), Salome (R. Strauss) and Lulu (A. Berg) as well as Mozart and Verdi’s operas. For many years he has been closely connected with the Polish music scene. After receiving the Second Prize at Geneva International Composition Competition in 1994 he began collaborating with Poland’s most important music centers. In 1996 he was named First Guest Director of Gdansk Philharmonic and First Conductor at the State Theatre in Wiesbaden. In 1997 he was appointed Artistic Director and First Conductor of the State Opera in Cracow. In the same year he became Chief Conductor of the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra. From 1998-2003 he appeared each season at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. From 2004-2013 he was permanent conductor of Warsaw Chamber Opera. He started collaborating with the latter in 2003, when he prepared the premiere of Verdi’s Falstaff. Together with Warsaw Chamber Opera musicians he toured France, Spain, and Japan (two times, in 2004 and 2006). Buman debuted in the National Opera in Warsaw in February 2007 conducting Mozart’s Don Giovanni. From September 2008 to June 2012 he was Artistic Director of Fryderyk Chopin Polish Baltic Philharmonic in Gdańsk. From 2013-2015 he was First Guest Conductor at Artur Rubinstein Lodz Philharmonic. Since 2015 he has been Artistic Director of Bydgoszcz Pomeranian Philharmonic. Since 2010 he has taught conducting at Gdansk Music Academy.
http://www.filharmonia.bydgoszcz.pl/dyrektor/kai-bumann/
OMAR TOMASONI
trumpet
Easiness, spontaneity and neatness: such preminent qualities which easily distinguish this extraordinary musician.
He’s able to bring vivid phrasing and fine musicality in any of his performances, with a unique sound clarity which lets the audience perceive any tricky technical passage as the simplest one: for this he’s considered one of the greatest active trumpet player in Europe.
He was born in Orzinuovi (Brescia) in 1984 and brilliantly completed his musical studies „cum Laude” with M°Sergio Malacarne at Conservatorio „Luca Marenzio” in Brescia.
He acted as Principal trumpet in several national orchestras as well as international ones like Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Seoul Philarmonich, the Janacek Festival Orchestra and the World Youth Orchestra.
From 2001 to 2003 he has been an active member of the European Union Youth Orchestra thus he was awarded with the Bronze Medal of the Italian Republic for high artistic merit.
From 2004 to 2008 he was Principal trumpet in Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, with M° Zubin Mehta as Chief Conductor and from 2008 to 2013 he was Principal trumpet in Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Roma, directed by M°Antonio Pappano.
Since August 2013 he is Principal trumpet of Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam.
Should be also mentioned some prestigious engagements with the Mozart Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Musicians for Human Rights association.
He’s also very active as a solo, duo and chamber music and He is founding member of the famous Italian Wonderbrass Quintet.
http://pt.yamaha.com/pt/artists/brass_woodwinds/omar_tomasoni/
KERRY TURNER
horn
Kerry Turner has become one of the most recognized names, not only in the horn world, but in brass playing in general. Whether as a composer or a performing artist on the horn, he appears regularly on the great concert stages of the world. Mr. Turner’s major ensembles with whom he performs include the world-famous American Horn Quartet, the stunning Virtuoso Horn Duo, and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. As a member of these prestigious organizations, he has concertized on four continents. He is also a frequently invited soloist and clinician, having performed and taught in Germany, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, the United States and the Czech Republic.
A native of San Antonio, Texas, Kerry Turner received his Artist Diploma from the Manhattan School of Music in New York and, as a Fulbright Scholar, continued his studies with Hermann Baumann at the Stuttgart College of Music and Performing Arts. Following his studies, he placed 5th at the Geneva International Horn Competition and won the Bronze Medal at the 39th Prague Spring International Music Competition.
Mr. Turner’s compositional career has sky-rocketed over the past several years. His works for horn in combination with virtually every genre of chamber music continue to be heard literally around the world. He has been commissioned by many organizations, including the United States Air Force Heritage of America Band, the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the Japanese Horn Ensemble, and the Richmond, Virginia Chamber Music Society (with Mr. Thomas Jšostlein), just to name a few. He has been awarded top prizes at the International Horn Society Composition Contest as well as the IBLA Foundation. In his spare time, Mr. Turner sings tenor, studies languages (he is fluent in 4 and dabbles in a few others) and loves to cook.
http://www.kerryturner.com/
JAMIE WILLIAMS
trombone
Jamie Williams born in 1979, began playing the trombone at the age of eleven in his native St. Petersburg, Florida. After only four years of studying, he began taking private lessons with some of the most renowned brass teachers in the United States. At the same time, he began performing regularly with a variety of professional orchestras. He was a member of the Prometheus Chamber Orchestra and the Albany Symphony. At the young age of 18,he began as a full-time student at The Juilliard School. His most important teachers have been Joseph Alessi, Per Brevig, Jonas Bylund and Michel Becquet.
In 2003, Jamie Williams was appointed principal trombone of the Dortmund Philharmonic and moved to Germany. Since then, he has played frequently with many of the most important German orchestras. The Berlin Philharmonic, Deutsche Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Cologne Opera, Orchestra of the Staatsoper Berlin, Dresden Staatskapelle and the Hamburg Opera are only a few of the many engagements fulfilled in the recent years. He has performed with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Kurt Masur, and Seiji Ozawa, to name only a few.
Jamie Williams has been awarded many prizes in the USA and Europe. In the solo competitions of the International Trombone Association, he was honored with the first prize in 2001, 2002, and 2003. He also won first prize at the Eastern Trombone Workshop Competition, the Zellmer-Minnesota Orchestra Competition, and the Bach Festival Society Competition. He was awarded second prize in the international competitions of the New York Tilden Prize and the Conn-Christian Lindberg Competition in Spain.
He has participated in many diverse festivals such as the International Orchesterinstitute Attergau in Austria, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the Music Academy of the West in California, where he was awarded first prize in the concerto competition.
His interest in modern music has given him the opportunity to play concerts in many European countries. With the musikFabrik, a leading contemporary music ensemble in Cologne, Germany, Jamie Williams has performed in Cité de la Musique in Paris, at the Wiener Festwochen, and in Warsaw and Madrid. In 2008, he performed Paul Creston’s Fantasy for Trombone and Orchestra with the Dortmund Philharmonic. He presented the Concertino by Ferdinand David with the Bochum Symphony in 2010 as a Soloist of the German International Trombone Festival. In 2011, Jamie Williams was a soloist in the world-renowned Berlin Philharmonie, performing the trombone concerto of Henri Tomasi.
Besides giving master-classes in countries such as Argentina, Spain, France, Germany, Slovenia, Poland, and the United States, he served on the competitions committee of the International Trombone Association from 2005 to 2008 with fellow trombonists such as Jiggs Whigham and Dennis Wick.
Since 2010, Jamie Williams has been the Principal Trombonist of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and has taught at the music conservatory in Rostock. In 2011, he was appointed Yamaha Artist.
http://www.jamiewilliams.de/
DIRK HIRTHE
tuba
Tuba player at the Badischen Staatskapelle and Professor for tuba at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe
Dirk Hirthe was born in 1984 in Freiburg- Breisgau, Germany. From 1999 to 2004, he was the young student of George A. Monch at the University of Music in Freiburg. He continued his studies with Professor Jens Björn-Larsen at the University for Music and Theater in Hannover, who has since then remained a close friend and mentor. Dirk Hirthe was a scholarship holder of the German MusicLife Foundation as well as prize winner in Marl City and Baden-Württemberg.
As soloist, he has appeared with the Museum Orchestra of Frankfurt, the Bochumer Symphony and the State Orchestra of Baden. From 2007 to 2008, he played as intern with the Stuttgart Opera House. Since 2008, he has been tubist with the State Orchestra of Baden, and is regularly invited as guest to various symphony and opera orchestras in Germany including the Bavarian Opera Orchestra, the Museum Orchestra of Frankfurt and the SWR Radio Symphony Orchestra in Baden-Baden Freiburg. 2008 found him in the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under the direction of Thomas Hengelbrock, and in 2012 he played “Duetto per Tuba” for the American composer, Stephen Mellilo, which can be heard on his newest CD “Chapter 21”. In 2013, Hirthe was invited to play with the Lucerne Festival Brass Ensemble with whom he recorded “Modest Mussorgsky – Pictures of an Exhibition” on CD. 2014 was his debut with the Lucerne Festival itself.
Since 2011, Dirk Hirthe has served as Honorary Professor of Tuba and Brass Chamber Music at the Music University in Karlsruhe. He offers numerous master classes throughout Europe.