Arie Van Lysebeth was the President of the Jury of the Queen Elisabeth Competition from 1996 to 2018. He took up the violin at the age of four. He completed his higher education at the Brussels Conservatory in music theory, bassoon, chamber music, and orchestral conducting. Following a competition, he was appointed bassoon soloist of the Belgian Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, he came joint first in the Prague International Bassoon Contest. He also studied conducting under Bruno Maderna in Salzburg and under Pierre Boulez in Switzerland. Starting in 1970, he conducted the Flemish Chamber Orchestra, both in Belgium and abroad. As a guest conductor, he has appeared with the major Belgian orchestras as well as with symphony orchestras in the United States of America, Argentina, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany. He has performed with many famous soloists, including Igor Oistrakh, José Van Dam, Murray Perahia, and Augustin Dumay. From 1995 to 2004 he was the regular conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Brussels Conservatory, where he taught chamber music for many years (1970-1994) and served as director (1994-2003). From 2004 to 2014, he was the artistic director of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.

From the stages of the world’s most prestigious opera houses - New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera, London’s Covent Garden, Milan’s La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, and the Buenos Aires Teatro Colón - to the concert halls of Salzburg, Berlin, Rome, Paris, and New York - the name of Martina Arroyo (New York) has become synonymous with music-making of the highest order. Famous for her interpretations of Verdi, Puccini, Strauss, and Mozart, she is equally at ease with contemporary music. She has made more than 50 recordings, including major operas and orchestral performances with internationally renowned conductors. She is a Distinguished Professor Emerita of the faculty of Indiana University, a Trustee of Carnegie Hall and the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was a member of the National Endowment for the Arts for six years, and was a recipient of the first American Council for the Arts awards. Martina Arroyo is founder and artistic director of the Martina Arroyo Foundation, Inc., which sponsors two programmes for young singers, a ‘Role Development Class’ and ‘Prelude to Performance’, which is a six week summer residence programme. Martina Arroyo has been awarded the Kennedy Center Honor, as well as honorary doctorates from several universities and institutions, including the Juilliard School, Hunter College, the New England School of Music, and Rutgers University.

Born in Marseilles, Renée Auphan began her career there as an assistant director at the city’s opera house. Employed later by the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, she took on its entire management for five years. At the same time, she also studied singing and music; she made her operatic debut at the Opéra Comique and appeared soon after in the Monte Carlo and Marseilles opera houses. She went on to perform as a soloist at the Opéra de Paris, including during the period when Rolf Liebermann was its director. After retiring from her singing career in 1983, she was appointed to head what was known at the time as the Festival de Lausanne, which she transformed into a season of opera and ballet. This led to the establishment of the Opéra de Lausanne, of which she was director from 1984 to 1995. In 1993, she was awarded French-speaking Switzerland’s Prix des Belles-Lettres for her book Mezza voce. Between 1995 and 2001, Renée Auphan ran the Grand Théâtre in Geneva, before being appointed in 2009 to head the Opéra de Marseille, where she has directed a number of productions, including Massenet’s Manon, Sauguet’s La Chartreuse de Parme, Jean-Michel Damase’s L’Héritière, and Tomasi’s Sampiero Corso, as well as reviving Lausanne and Tours production of Honegger and Ibert’s L’Aiglon; this year, she will also revive La Traviata. She is an Officier de la Légion d’Honneur and an Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite.

In an international career that has spanned 50 years, Teresa Berganza has travelled the world, performing in its leading opera houses and concert halls, including the Paris Opera, La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan in New York, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Rome Opera, and others in Vienna, Hamburg, Stockholm, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, etc. ; she has performed under celebrated 20th-century conductors such as C.M. Giulini, H. von Karajan, G. Solti, Z. Mehta, C. Abbado, D. Barenboim, and R. Muti. Her stage presence and interpretive ability have been repeatedly acclaimed and have led to her being sought after by directors such as F. Zeffirelli, J.P. Ponnelle, G. Strehler, and P. Faggioni. Her roles have included Cherubino, Zerlina, Dorabella, Rosina, Angelina, Isabella, La Périchole, Charlotte, and Carmen. Her vast repertoire ranges from the masters of the Italian Baroque to the composers of the 20th century, with a predilection for Spanish music. In parallel with her career as a soloist, she has given numerous master classes in major Spanish and international centres, including Madrid, Santander, Paris, St Petersburg, and Rome. The recipient of a hundred different distinctions, Teresa Berganza attaches particular importance to her election as the first female member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.

After studying at the University of Music in Bucharest, Marius Brenciu made his debut as Don Ottavio (in Don Giovanni) in 1997. He has taken part in numerous competitions and has won many prizes, including 2nd Prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2000 and the Singer of the World prize at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2001. He has worked under distinguished conductors such as C. Abbado, L. Maazel, Z. Mehta, V. Gergiev, K. Petrenko, M. Jansons and S. Ozawa. He has appeared with great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the NDR Sinfonieorchester, the BBC Philharmonic, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. He has sung in La Bohème in Hamburg, San Francisco, Tel Aviv, and Brussels ; in La Rondine at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and in Paris and Toulouse ; in Simon Boccanegra in Hamburg ; in La Traviata in Berlin, Rome, Brussels, San Diego, and Montpellier ; in Eugene Onegin in Vienna, Tokyo, Geneva, Zurich, and Munich ; and in L’Elisir d’amore in Berlin and Tel Aviv. He has worked with stage directors such as F. Zeffirelli, P. Stein, N. Joel, K. and U. Hermann, and A. Homoki. He has recorded for EMI, the BBC, the SWR, NHK, and Radio France. He lived in Brussels for a number of years and has become a Belgian citizen.

Peter de Caluwe studied literature and the history of the theatre at the Universities of Ghent, Brussels, and Antwerp. In 1986, Gerard Mortier invited him to join him at La Monnaie, where he worked as a dramatic adviser and was also in charge of contacts with the press, public relations, and projects for young people. In 1989, Pierre Audi and Truze Lodder asked him to join their team in Amsterdam. In 1994, he was appointed director of casting, and later artistic director. Since 2007, he has been general and artistic director of La Monnaie ; a third term in this position will prolong his stay with the company until 2025. In October 2011, under his management, La Monnaie/De Munt was named Opera House of the Year by the German specialist magazine Opernwelt. In November 2011, Radio Klara and Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen named him Musical Personality of the Year. He was the first person to be awarded an honorary master’s by the Brussels Ecole supérieure des Arts Saint-Luc. From 2011 to 2013, he was President of Opera Europa. In 2013, the Vlaamse Vereniging voor Bestuur en Beleid chose him as Manager of the Year.

Salvatore Champagne has appeared in the most prestigious opera houses and concert halls of the United States and Europe. He made his debut in 1988, when he was selected as the tenor soloist for a European tour with Leonard Bernstein. Immediately after that, he joined the Ensemble of the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, with which he performed in many lead roles for tenor. Over the next ten years, he made guest appearances in renowned opera houses such as the Opernhaus in Zurich, the Opéra national du Rhin, the Teatro Bellini, and the Bayerische Staatsoper. In parallel with his opera career, Salvatore Champagne has given many concert performances, with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, among others. He has been awarded prizes at the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition and the International Vocal Competition ’s-Hertogenbosch and grants from Musica, the Sullivan Foundation, and the National Institute for Music Theater. In 2004, at the suggestion of his teacher and mentor Richard Miller, Salvatore Champagne joined the singing faculty at Oberlin College Conservatory; he is now the Director of the faculty.

Marc Clémeur studied theatre studies and musicology in Cologne, before going on to work as a stage direction assistant to Götz Friedrich in Amsterdam, Bayreuth, and Düsseldorf. He became a producer of classical music for Belgian radio and television in 1977. In 1984, he was appointed director of the Vlaams Filharmonisch Orkest ; and in 1989, director general of the Vlaamse Opera, which, under his management, built up an international reputation. In 2009, he became general director of the Opéra National du Rhin, where he oversaw an original project, with a particular focus on contemporary composers. He devoted a cycle to Janáèek, which was directed by Robert Carsen, and also staged rarely seen French works. Under his leadership, the Opéra Studio has trained a number of singers who today are invited on stages worldwide. After a long career in the musical world, Marc Clémeur is now frequently asked to be an artistic adviser to opera houses and competitions and is often invited to serve as a member of the jury of prestigious international competitions. He is the director of Génération Opéra in Paris, which notably organises the Voix Nouvelles competition, and artistic adviser to the Opera Pienza competition.

Helmut Deutsch is one of the world’s most sought-after and most renowned lieder accompanists. He was born in Vienna, where he studied at the Konservatorium, the Music Academy, and the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst. He was awarded the Vienna Composition Prize in 1965 and became a professor at the age of 24. Although he is a distinguished chamber musician, playing with eminent instrumentalists, he has concentrated primarily on lieder accompaniment. When he began his career, he first accompanied the soprano Irmgard Seefried, before going on to partner Hermann Prey for twelve years. He went on to play in the most prestigious venues, working with renowned singers such as Jonas Kaufmann, Diana Damrau, Piotr Beczala, Camilla Nylund, Michael Volle and Mauro Peter. Helmut Deutsch has recorded more than 100 CDs. In recent years, he has been particularly keen to develop young talent : after a period as a professor in Vienna, he has continued to teach, mainly at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, where he was professor of lieder interpretation for 28 years. He is also a guest teacher in a number of other schools and gives numerous masterclasses in Europe and in the Far East.

Serge Dorny studied music at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent and history of art, archaeology, musicology, and communication sciences at Ghent University. In 1983, he joined the La Monnaie opera house as a musical dramaturge, under Gerard Mortier, before joining the Festival of Flanders, of which he became the artistic director in 1989. He was later appointed general director and artistic director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He was the general director of the Opéra de Lyon from 2003 to 2021, and began his tenure as general director of the Bayerische Staatsoper in 2021. He is a member of the board of directors of the Bayerische Rundfunk and of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, and serves on the juries of several international competitions. Serge Dorny was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Université de Montréal, and is also a Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur, a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and an Officier de l’Ordre de la Couronne de Belgique. His published works include L’avenir d’un passé (with Johann Thieleman) and Penser l’opéra à présent.

The Dutch soprano Margreet Honig trained under Annie Hermes and Corrie Bijster at the Amsterdam Conservatory. She later moved to the United States for further training under Evelyne Lear, before undertaking specialised studies of the French repertoire under Pierre Bernac in Paris. She has given many recitals alongside the pianist Rudolf Jansen and has also recorded with him and with the Nederlands Radio Kamerorkest, conducted by Kenneth Montgomery, on a number of occasions. For the last thirty years, Margreet Honig has devoted herself almost entirely to teaching. She taught for many years at the Rotterdam Conservatory and at the Sweelinck Academy of the Amsterdam Conservatory. She is regularly invited to give master classes and courses in performance in Europe and the United States: among other institutions, she has taught at the conservatoires of Zurich, Basle, Hamburg, Versailles, and Paris (CNSM), at the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, at the Royal Academy in London, and at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. She has also worked in the opera studios of the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Latvian State Opera. Her assistance as a vocal coach has enabled many students from all over the world to find their way onto the world’s great opera stages.

The son of a diplomat, Dominique Meyer was born in Alsace in 1955 and spent his childhood in Germany. As a student at the Paris School of Economics, he developed a passion for things cultural and went to a theatre, an opera house, or a concert hall on a daily basis. He first became involved in French cultural policy in 1980: after working at the Industry Ministry, he joined the personal staff of the Culture Minister, Jack Lang, with responsibility for the film and cultural industries. In 1989, after serving as a consultant to the Opéra de Paris, he became its Director General. Later, he headed the personal staff of the Culture and Communications Minister Catherine Tasca and went on to serve as an adviser to two prime ministers, Edith Cresson and Pierre Bérégovoy, before being appointed Director of the Opéra de Lausanne in 1994. Dominique Meyer served as Director General and Artistic Director of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées from 1999 to 2010. Since then, he has been Director of the Wiener Staatsoper. Until 2010, Dominique Meyer also lectured at the Université d’Évry (Paris) in the context of the Professional Masters in ‘Administration de musique et du spectacle vivant’. He has chaired the jury of the Neue Stimmen singing competition since 2009.

Born in Dublin, Ann Murray has close ties with English National Opera - for which she has sung many lead roles, including those of Handel’s Xerxes and Ariodante and Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda - and with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where she has appeared as Cherubino, Dorabella, Donna Elvira, Rosina, and Octavian, as well as in new productions such as L’Enfant et les sortilèges, Ariadne auf Naxos, Idomeneo, Mitridate, Re di Ponto, Così fan tutte, Mosè in Egitto, Alcina, and Giulio Cesare. She has performed in opera and in recital all over the world: in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Dresden, Cologne, Berlin, Munich, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan, Vienna (Konzerthaus and Musikverein), Salzburg, Madrid, Dublin, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York (Metropolitan Opera), and elsewhere. Her discography not only reflects her extensive concert and recital repertoire, but also includes many of her outstanding opera roles. Ann Murray has received numerous distinctions: in 1997, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the National University of Ireland; in 1998, she was named a Kammersängerin of the Bayerische Staatsoper; she was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music (London) in 1999. In the Golden Jubilee Queen’s Birthday Honours, she was made a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

Considered one of the best opera tenors of today, Christoph Prégardien regularly performs with world-class orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Vienna Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. His vast discography, often praised by critics, includes collaborations with numerous famous artists such as Andreas Staier, Michael Gees, Julia Kleiter, Julius Drake, Christoph Schnackertz, and his son Julian Prégardien. His experience singing the Evangelist parts and his close relationship with conductors such as Nagano, Chailly, Herreweghe, Harnoncourt, Luisi, and Gardiner laid the perfect foundations for his passion for conducting works by Bach, which he has immersed himself in since 2012 in partnership with Le Concert Lorrain, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the Balthasar Neumann Choir, the Dresdner Kammerchor, Collegium Vocale Gent, the RIAS Kammerchor, and others. Christoph Prégardien also devotes a great deal of his musical life to teaching; he has taught at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne since 2004 and teaches masterclasses all over the world.

Founder of the ensemble Les Talens Lyriques in 1991 and an internationally renowned harpsichordist, Christophe Rousset is a musician and conductor with a passion for opera and for the rediscovery of Europe’s musical heritage. He studied the harpsichord at the Schola Cantorum under Huguette Dreyfus and later at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague under Bob van Asperen. At the age of 22, he won First Prize at the seventh Musica Antiqua Harpsichord Competition in Bruges. Today, Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques are invited to perform all over the world. In parallel, Christophe Rousset pursues an active career as a harpsichordist and chamber musician, performing and recording on outstanding historical instruments. Teaching is of great importance to him: he also organises, and teaches in, masterclasses and academies for young musicians. He has a parallel career as a guest conductor, appearing in the most prestigious venues with the most eminent ensembles. Christophe Rousset also engages in musical research and has published critical editions, as well as monographies devoted to Rameau and François Couperin. Christophe Rousset is a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, and a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite.

Peter Schreier was given his first singing lessons by his father, before entering the preparatory class of the Dresdner Kreuzchor, of which he quickly became first soloist and with which he recorded the Bach cantatas for Deutsche Grammophon. In 1956, he started at the Dresden Hochschule für Musik, where he studied singing and orchestral conducting. After graduating in 1959, he joined the Dresden Staatsoper company as a lyric tenor. He went on to be the guest of prestigious institutions such as the Berlin Staatsoper and the Vienna Staatsoper and the Vienna, Salzburg, and Bayreuth festivals, as well as La Scala in Milan and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. His voice soon won fame and acclaim, especially for his interpretations of Mozart lead roles and his recitals. A number of his recordings have been re-issued on CD on labels such as Berlin Classics and Philips. In parallel with his career as a singer, he conducted the Dresden Staatskapelle in concert for the first time in 1970; since then, he has specialised in the music of Bach and Mozart. Peter Schreier has been awarded many distinctions, including the National Prize of the German Democratic Republic (First Class) and the title of Kammersänger. In 1986, he became an honorary member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.

The bass baritone José Van Dam is one of today’s greatest singers. Since his debut in Paris, he has been a regular guest at the world’s most prestigious opera houses and festivals (including the Paris Opera, Covent Garden, La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Metropolitan Opera, the Teatro Colón, and the festivals of Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, and Orange). His roles have included Falstaff, Simon Boccanegra, Philippe II (in Don Carlos), Don Giovanni, Boris Godunov, Amfortas (in Parsifal), the Flying Dutchman, and Wozzeck, to name but a few. His performance in the title role of Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise was warmly received in Paris and Salzburg, at its premiere. His operatic career has not prevented him from branching into oratorio and lieder. He has also sung under Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Georg Solti, and Seiji Ozawa, among others. He has appeared in films, most notably in the famous Le Maître de Musique. José Van Dam has received the titles of Kammersänger of the city of Berlin and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. In 1998, he was ennobled by King Albert II.