Born in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Martha Argerich began learning piano at the age of five with Vincenzo Scaramuzza. A child prodigy, she soon was giving public performances, before moving to Europe in 1955 to continue her education in London, Vienna and Switzerland, with Friedrich Gulda, Nikita Magaloff, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Stefan Askenase. In 1957, she won the piano competitions in Bolzano and Geneva, and in 1965 the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Ever since, she has been regarded as one of the world’s finest pianists. She is particularly highly regarded for her interpretations of the virtuoso piano literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Her broad repertoire notably includes works by Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Messiaen, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Debussy, Ravel, Franck, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky. Argerich works continually with the most outstanding orchestras, conductors and festivals in the world. Chamber music also plays an important part in her artistic activities. She regularly performs and records with pianists Nelson Freire and Alexandre Rabinovitch, cellist Mischa Maisky and violinist Gidon Kremer.

Since 1998, she has been Artistic Director of the Beppu Festival, Japan. In 1999, she created the International Piano Competition and the Martha Argerich Festival in Buenos Aires, followed by the Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano, in 2002.

Her many awards and distinctions include Officer (1996) and Commander (2004) of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Award (1997), the Order of the Rising Sun with Gold Rays and Rosette from the Emperor of Japan and the prestigious Praemium Imperiale of the Japanese Arts Association (2005).

Janusz Olejniczak is one of the most outstanding contemporary Chopin interpreters. Born in Wrocław, he was the youngest prize-winner of the 8th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition (1970) and also won a prize in the Alfredo Casella International Competition in Naples. He has performed in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia, in the most famous concert halls, such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Salle Pleyel, Suntory Hall, Lincoln Center, Tonhalle in Düsseldorf and Concertgebouw.

He has been a juror of piano competitions many times and given masterclasses abroad – in Europe, Canada, Japan and Columbia. Besides the core Classical repertoire, he also performs Polish contemporary music (incl. Lutosławski, Górecki and Kilar). He has played with orchestra under the direction of Witold Rowicki, Stanisław Wisłocki, Kazimierz Kord, Antoni Wit, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Wojciech Michniewski, Tadeusz Strugała, Charles Dutoit, Andrzej Borejko, Grzegorz Nowak, Jacek Kaspszyk and others. For many years, he has also worked with Marek Moś and the Aukso Orchestra. He was one of the first performers of Chopin’s music on period instruments (Erard and Pleyel) and is a regular guest of the festival ‘Chopin and his Europe’ in Warsaw, including appearances alongside Martha Argerich and Maria João Pires. He has also appeared many times with Frans Brüggen’s Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and the
Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and Philippe Herreweghe.

He has made over forty recordings, including the soundtracks to Roman Polanski’s The Pianist and Andrzej Żuławski’s La note bleu. Among his many recordings for the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, particularly notable is the recently finished complete set of mazurkas on period instrument. He has been decorated with the Officer’s Cross of the Rebirth of Poland (2000), the ‘Gloria Artis’ Gold Medal (2005) and ‘Fryderyk’ awards (eight times). Since October 2015, he has been working with the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw.

Akiko Ebi launched her international career by winning second prize and four special prizes given by Arthur Rubinstein in the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris and reaching the final of the 10th Chopin Competition in Warsaw, earning the recognition of Martha Argerich, her future mentor . She studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Aldo Ciccolini and pursued additional studies with Vlado Perlemuter, Louis Kentner, Conrad Hansen and Colette Zerah. She has performed throughout the world, in such venues as the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Gewandhaus, Teatro Colón, Wigmore Hall and Suntory Hall, with such outstanding conductors as Brüggen, Calderon, Foster, Fournet, Guschlbauer, Janowski, Klee, Milanov, Sado, Sinaisky and Skrowaczewski. As a chamber musician, she has given piano duo recitals with Martha Argerich and performed with Augustin Dumay, Regis Pasquier, Angela Hewitt, Michel Dalberto and Yumino Toyoda, as well as the Parisii and Via Nova quartets. She appears regularly at festivals in La Roque d’Anthéron, Verbier, Menton, Echternach, Lugano, New York, Tokyo and Warsaw.

She has recorded Chopin’s complete etudes, preludes, nocturnes and impromptus and also his First Concerto, as well as works by Fauré, Franck, Grieg, Ravel, Pierne, Webern and Dynam-Victor Fumet (world’s first recording). She won two Grand Prix d’Or for her Hikari Ōe disc, which brought international attention to this composer, who was born mentally handicapped. Particularly highly rated by critics around the world are her recordings for the Fryderyk Chopin Institute: the Preludes, performed on a period instrument, and her recently released interpretation of the E minor Concerto from the ‘Chopin and his Europe’ festival with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Frans Brüggen . Made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government (1993), she is also a recipient of Japan’s prestigious Exxon-Mobile Music Prize (2002). She has given masterclasses in many countries and been a juror of major important international piano competitions.

Martín García García is a pianist born in Gijón, Spain. He began his musical studies at the age of 5, with his teachers Natalia Mazoun and Ilyà Goldfarb. Graduated from Reina Sofía School of Music, he studied there for more than a decade with Galina Eguiazarova -receiving from Her Majesty the Queen Sofía the prize for the Best Student of the chair-, he is also Master in Piano by Mannes School of Music in New York.

Martín has won first prize in several national and international
competitions, highlighting his victory at 2021 Cleveland International
Piano Competition, and his 3rd Prize at XVIII International Chopin
Piano Competition (and the special award for the Best Concerto), the
most relevant competition on the world stage. Furthermore, he got
the 1 st Prize at 2018 International Keyboard Institute & Festival, held
in New York, which allowed him to obtain the scholarship with which
he was able to establish himself there. He resided in New York City
for the past two years completing his artistic training with the
distinguished pianist Mr. Jerome Rose.

He has given concerts as a soloist in venues around Europe and
United States, receiving very positive reviews from musicians and
pianists of the stature of Vladimir Kraniev, Dmitri Alexeev, Arcadi
Volodos, Dimitri Bashkirov, Joaquín Achúcarro or Tatiana Copeland
(Sergei Rachmaninov’s grandniece), among others. He has also been
invited to the International Ruhr Piano Festival under the sponsorship
of Maestro Radu Lupu.

After all the success of the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, held
during October 2021, Martin has planned several tours in Japan,
Europe, and USA.

Magdalena Hirsz – who performs her jury duties both in the jury and the preselection jury – a Polish pianist of Asian descent has been impressing audiences, critics and fellow performers alike with her vibrant pianism and sensitive musicality. She is prized for command of a rich and vivid tonal palette, and a virtuosity that is allied to intuitive and thoughtful interpretation. Among highlights of recent seasons have been recital engagements in Europe, Asia and Latin America. She has appeared at choice festivals including Septembre Musical and Lourmarin with different interactive projects as the G. Mancini, Béjart ballet or with the contemporary painters and photographers.

Magdalena Hirsz began her musical studies in Poland at the Music School and at the age of 14 she gave her first public concert performing Chopin and her own improvisations. On her 18th birthday she became a student in Geneva Music Conservatory in Switzerland. She nevertheless continued to study, musicology at the University of Geneva, then at the the Academy of Music in Łódź, Warsaw and Viena. Magdalena Hirsz’s repertoire is an eclectic mix of music from the Classical period to contemporary music. She has recorded 2 CDs. Besides, she has been developing a parallel career as a pedagogue: she was in charge of the piano class and chamber music at the Institut International de Lancy in Geneva, at Rene Gościnny French High School in Warsaw, the F. Chopin Music Conservatory in Warsaw, St. George’s International school in Montreux and Ecole de Musique in Villeneuve.

Magdalena is also a creator and artistic director of three Winter Piano Festivals in Warsaw, International Piano Competition for Youth “Jeune Chopin” in Lugano and the President of F. Chopin Institute in Switzerland.