Our Jury
Clara Bystrand - Singer
(Sweden)
Judging expertise: all-round
Clara Bystrand is a Swedish lyric-dramatic soprano with a long list of successful performances across all opera houses in Sweden as well as a few theatres in Europe (Spain, Germany).
She studied at the Kulturama Opera Studio and at the University College of Opera in Stockholm.
Clara has received a number of awards as a performer, for example from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
Besides the opera, she is frequently engaged in concerts - Clara has toured with Swedish and Danish orchestrasin Spain, Denmark and Germany and has also taken part in forming a small Swedish chamber music ensemble as well as an ensemble (Premier Players) during her years in Hungary.
Clara is well respected as an educator, she is mainly teaching classical but also popular singing when required.
She has played the violin in her childhood and plays the drums as a hobby.
Clara is a regular jury member of the PMIC Pro sibling competition.
Charles Mauleverer - Composer, Pianist
(UK)
Judging expertise: All-round
Following a music exhibition to Winchester College, Jersey-born composer Charles Mauleverer read music at OxfordUniversity, studying with Robert Saxton, Guy Newbury, and Ryan Wigglesworth, before winning a scholarship to study for his masters at the Royal College of Music in London, where his teachers included Jo Horovitz, Alison Kay and Ken Hesketh.
He studied for an Erasmus semester at the Filmuniversität Babelsberg whilst living in Berlin as part of his masters.
John Wilson, the BBC Singers, Adrian Brendel, Craig Ogden, the Babelsberg Film Orchestra, the South Czech Philharmonic, Jersey Chamber Orchestra and the Prague Symphonic Ensemble have all performed his music.
Recordings and performances at Abbey Road Studios, the National Portrait Gallery, Maida Vale, King's Place, Air Studios, Winchester Cathedral and Smecky Studios in Prague, with broadcasts on Classic FM and the BBC.
Films, documentaries and adverts featuring his music have been shown at festivals around the world from Jersey Shore to Cannes.
Charles has assisted on a number of film, TV and concert works, including shows for Sky, HBO, the BBC and other Hollywood productions.
In 2015-16, Charles completed his first symphony 'ONE HOME: An Environmental Symphony' and in 2017-18 completed a Second Symphony about the Great War entitled 'TWO BROTHERS'.
Charles has been a regular judge for music competitions, including the Royal College of Music's SFOC Competition and the Liberation Festival of Singing.
Dániel Bolgár - Percussionist & Mastering Engineer, Composer/Songwriter
(Hungary)
Judging expertise: all-round
Dániel completed his performing and teaching Master studies at the Royal College of Music in London (2012) and the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy in Budapest (2015) respectively.
Besides London and Budapest, Dániel is fortunate enough to have studied percussion and drums in New Jersey, Vienna, Linz, and a year in Antwerp, Belgium where he also studied audio engineering.
During this time he had the opportunity to take part in many festivals throughout Europe and perform in several concerts in top concert venues as soloist and chamber musician.
He is especially proud of his performance as solo artist at the Royal Albert Hall, Cadogan Hall, and National Gallery, and as drummer of a rock/blues band at the Sziget Festival.
Dániel has also actively performed in many other genres, playing percussion and drums in rock/world music formations.
He is regularly teaching - he has established a boutique private music school in Budapest named Premier Music Institute (PMI) - and enjoys composing music besides mastering audio (his marimba piece titled Alone was published in Holland in 2014).
Dániel has given percussion masterclasses in Portugal and Hungary since 2011.
He has been invited as jury member for conservatoires and music schools in Budapest.
Dániel is part of Duo Modarp chamber formation with Monika Markovich.
Besides educating, Dániel is working as an independent audio engineer.
This is his audio mastering website: https://www.dbmastering.eu
Mariam Bughadze - Violinist
(Georgia)
Judging expertise: Strings
Georgian violinist, currently living in Budapest, Hungary has studied at the Master’s program with professor Kornyei Zsofi at the Liszt Academy of Music.
In her previous years of education she studied with Rodam Jandieri at Tbilisi State Conservatoire and Rainer Kuchl - former concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic - at
the University of Music and Fine Arts, Austria.
Throughout Mariam's performing experience she had the honor to participate in various festivals, masterclasses and workshops i.e:
concerts under the baton of Takacs-Nagy Gabor, Kobayashi Ken-ichiro, masterclasses with Jacob Gilman, Janos Rolla.
She plays solo and in various chamber formations nowadays.
Donghee Diana Shin - Flute
(South Korea)
Judging Expertise: Winds
Donghee has a long list of countries where she has lived, studied and worked.
She began her professional music education whilst living in Hungary focusing her studies on the flute with Lóránt Kovács at the Budapest Liszt Academy.
When Donghee moved back to Korea she studied at the Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul where she obtained her Bachelor and Master degrees respectively (Flute and Music Performance).
Then she added to her list of prestigious universities by moving to the US and studying at the Longy School of Music of Bard College Los Angeles, California.
She has extensive experience in teaching having taught at El Sistema Korea before leaving for the United States, while performing in orchestras and as a soloist.
Donghee has experience in Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (YOLA and HOLA) working with other Teaching Artists in vocal, woodwind and brass sections. During her stay in California, she has worked and studied to broaden her horizon as a Teaching Artist.
Mónika Markovich - Harpist, co-founder of PMIC
(Hungary)
Judging expertise: harp
Monika received her Master of Music degree with outstanding distinction from the Liszt Academy of Music Budapest in 2010.
She has also studied the harp in Vienna, and by winning an Erasmus scholarship, in Brussels with Jana Bouskova.
She has taken part in many competitions (3rd prize winner at the National Harp Competition Hungary) and festivals in Europe.
Before embarking on her harp career, Ms Monika played piano for years, notably with Gábor Farkas at the Liszt Acacemy and studied music theory/solfege with the legendary Erzsébet Hegyi-Legányné.
She has played at numerous international festivals and has studied with world famous musicians such as: Gabriella Dall'Olio, Jana Bouskova, Isabelle Perrin, Ieuan Jones, Lavinia Meijer, Xavier de Maistre, Ion Ivan Roncea and many others.
Mónika plays concerts mostly as chamber musician these days playing at top Budapest concert venues.
In 2022, she took part in the UK tour of Concerto Budapest Orchestra.
She is part of Premier Players chamber formation, their first record was recorded and released in 2019, while the second album was released in 2021.
This is the ensemble's latest: https://open.spotify.com/
Mónika is also part of Duo Modarp with her husband, Dániel Bolgár,and also co-founded and is teaching at PMI.
János Lipcsei - Guitarist & Songwriter
(Hungary)
Judging expertise: guitar & songwriting
János Lipcsei is a truly versatile musician and guitarist.
After graduation, he studied music at the Bartók Béla Secondary School of Musical Arts.
János holds a music performing and teaching degree from the Music Institute of the University of Pécs where he studied both classical guitar and pedagogy.
In 2012 he went on to study jazz guitar at the Egressy Béni Conservatoire in Budapest.
He received his Classical Guitar Master Degree at the Bartók Béla Institute of Music.
János has many years of experience in teaching classical, rock and jazz guitar and has taught in several music schools in and around Budapest.
Besides teaching János writes his own guitar pieces as a composer. In 2019, with his colleague Tamas Molnar he published a collection of pieces for guitar including their own guitar compositions. In 2021 he recorded and published his first instrumental album called „Covered in smoke”. Since then, he has released an EP and an LP in 2022 and 2024.