The Jury of the 6th Viseu International Piano Competition is composed of 8 members from 6 countries. This panel brings together immense talents whose experience ensures that the choice of the winner is in good hands.

President of the Jury

Marian Rybicki (France/Poland)

Artistic Director of the Competition and President of the Jury

Jorge Martins (Portugal)

Artistic Director of the Competition and FIMPViseu

José Carlos Sousa (Portugal)

Jury Members

Manuel Araújo (Portugal)
Mei Zhu (China)
Olivier Gardon (France)
Roman Rabinovich (Israel/Canada)
Shao Ling (China/Portugal)

MARIAN RYBICKI
Marian Rybicki, pianist, combines two piano schools – that of Poland (Krakow Music Academy) and that of France (National Superior Conservatory of Music in Paris). Following a career as a concert pianist, mainly in Eastern countries, he began his teaching career at the École Normale de Musique de Paris / Alfred Cortot in 1979. Many of his students have been laureates of major international competitions, including First Prizes in Santander (1978), Marguerite Long – Jacques Thibaud (2004 and 2022), Leeds (2009), Hamamatsu (2012), Tel Aviv – Arthur Rubinstein (2014) and Paris – Prix Cortot (2016, 2020, 2022, 2024). He has served on the jury of international competitions in Beijing, Moscow (Chopin and Scriabin), Shanghai, Tokyo, Kiev (Horowitz), Monte Carlo, Tbilisi, Porto, Jaén, among others. In 1992, he founded the Animato Association in Paris, organizing numerous concerts for young artists in France and abroad. Since then, more than 800 young pianists invited by this prestigious association have performed at the Salle Cortot in Paris, many of whom have gone on to win prizes in major international competitions worldwide. In December 2021, Marian Rybicki established the first Frederic Chopin International Competition in France, now in its third edition. In recognition of his musical contributions, he was awarded the Cross of Merit, Gold grade.

JORGE MARTINS
Born in Porto, where he received his initial piano training with Hélia Soveral, Jorge Martins also completed the Advanced Singing Course. He enriched his education with pianists/pedagogues such as Vlado Perlemüter, M. Françoise Bucquet, Claude Helffer, Sequeira Costa, Madalena Soveral, and Constantin Illiescu. Of particular importance were the contributions of Jean Fassina and, especially, Marian Rybicki, with whom he maintains regular pedagogical and artistic collaboration.
His pedagogical activity developed at the Music School and the Professional Music School of Porto (as Pedagogical Director) and at the Regional Conservatory of Music of Viseu, where he continues to serve as Coordinator of the Keyboard Department.
As a pianist, he has performed throughout Portugal, Spain, and France. With the Oficina Musical do Porto, from its foundation until 1998, he performed at all Festivals in Portugal and Spain, as well as in Bogotá and Dortmund. He collaborated with various names from the national lyrical scene, such as Palmira Troufa and Oliveira Lopes (recital at the Granada Festival).
With the Contemporary Vocal Music Group of Porto, he participated in all their concerts for several years, including tours at the Festivals of Berlin, Leipzig, Erfurt, Halle, and Bad Elster.
He is a consultant for the Animato Association, Paris, dedicated to promoting concerts by young pianists and international competitions. Over the past 25 years, he has served on the jury of International Piano Competitions (alongside Andrej Jasinski, Jean Fassina, Marian Rybicki, Abdel-Raman El Bacha, Jacques Rouvier, Yuko Yamaoka, Akiko Ebi, Olivier Gardon, Aquiles Delle Vigne, among many others) – Porto, Grand Prix Animato (Paris), Piano Campus (France), International Competition of Morocco, Gorizia and Brescia (Italy), Horowitz (Ukraine), Hong Kong and Macau (Asia-Pacific), World Piano Meeting in Coimbra, Piano Week in Sardoal, Lanzhou and Ningbo (China), and others. He is the delegated jury president at the National Music Competition of Morocco (Piano).
He has given Masterclasses in Portugal (Porto, Viseu, Coimbra, Sardoal, Aveiro, …), in Morocco (Rabat), and in China (Lanzhou, Ningbo, Hangzhou, and Shanghai).
Artistic Director and President of the Jury of the Viseu International Piano Competition, whose five editions had winners such as Aristo Sham, Dong-Jung Miao, Qiani Xu, Bruce Liu (winner of the Chopin Competition in Warsaw 2021), Illia Ovcharenko (winner of the Honens Competition 2022), and Haozhou Wang, all multiple laureates of numerous international competitions.

JOSÉ CARLOS SOUSA
José Carlos Almeida de Sousa was born in Viseu, Portugal, in 1972. He began his musical studies at the Dr. José de Azeredo Perdigão Regional Conservatory of Music in his hometown, where he completed the general composition course in 1995. In 1996, he continued his studies at the University of Aveiro, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Composition in 2000.
He studied composition and electronic music with Evgueni Zoudilkin, João Pedro Oliveira, and Isabel Soveral. He also attended several composition and electronic music seminars led by composers such as Jorge Antunes, Alain Sève, Tomás Henriques, Flo Menezes, François Bayle, and Emmanuel Nunes.
In June 2005, he completed a master’s degree in music at the University of Aveiro, specializing in composition, with a dissertation titled “Timbre and its Metamorphoses in the Electroacoustic Music Composition Process.”
He has taught at the University of Aveiro and the Piaget Institute in Viseu. Together with Paula Sobral, he organized and served as artistic director of the Sernancelhe International Classical Guitar Competition and Festival for 15 consecutive editions.
He founded the Viseu Spring Music Festival in 2008, also serving as its Artistic Director. In 1995, he won first prize at the 1st composition competition of his conservatory with the children’s piano piece “Almofada.”
At the “Música Viva 2000” Electroacoustic Composition Competition, he was awarded an Honorable Mention. In April 2001, his work “Viagem” received an award in the same competition, part of Porto 2001 European Capital of Culture.
His music has been performed in various Portuguese cities and music festivals, including: Festival Música Viva (Portugal), Primavera en La Habana (Cuba), Aveiro Síntese (Portugal), “33e Festival International des Musiques et Créations Electroniques” (Bourges – France), Sernancelhe International Guitar Competition and Festival (Portugal), 14th World Saxophone Congress (Slovenia), “Guitarmania” – International Classical Guitar Festival (Almada – Portugal), Palencia Guitar Festival (Spain), Electroacoustic Music Days Festival (Seia – Portugal), “Síntese” – Contemporary Music Cycle of Guarda (Portugal), Santo Tirso International Guitar Festival (Portugal), Viseu Spring Music Festival (Portugal), 8e Festival International Guitar’Essonne (Paris – France), Electroacoustic Music Days at Santa Cruz Air Race (Portugal), VIII Seville Guitar Festival (Spain), Tempo Reale “Maratona Soundscape” Festival in Florence, Italy, and “The Soundscape we live in” Festival in Corfu, Greece, among others.
Some of his works result from commissions by various institutions such as international music festivals, universities, museums, and municipal councils. In April 2022, his orchestral work “The 7 Trumpets and the New Jerusalem” premiered, commissioned jointly by Miso Music Portugal and the Viseu Spring Music Festival.
Currently, he is a composition professor at the Viseu Conservatory of Music, where he has also served as Pedagogical Director since 2004.

MANUEL ARAÚJO
Born in 1983, Manuel Araújo has an extensive international concert career, with hundreds of performances across 4 continents, having been awarded over 20 prizes. Notably, he received the Premier Prix at the 89th Concours International Léopold Bellan in Paris, which has recognized artists such as Olivier Messiaen, Augustin Dumay, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Philippe Entremont, Anne Queffélec, and Patrice Fontanarosa.
A disciple of Aquiles Delle Vigne, with whom he studied at Codarts, Rotterdam University of the Arts, graduating “Cum Laude”, he also studied with renowned musicians such as Mikhail Voskresensky, Angela Hewitt, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Ronald Brautigam, Gabriel Kwok, Helena Sá e Costa, Sequeira Costa, Fausto Di Cesare, Luiz de Moura Castro, Emanuel Krasovsky, Enrico Pace, Gary Hoffman, Wolfgang Holzmair, and Choong Mo Kang.
He began his professional career in 2000, after unanimously winning the 1st National Prize for Young Pianists by the Portuguese Rotary Foundation. He won first prizes in various competitions in Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Japan, and Italy. He was among the 4 awardees at the 34th Yokohama International Piano Concert and one of the 36 finalists at the Sydney International Piano Competition. He was a semi-finalist and awarded “Best Portuguese Participant” at the 17th Vianna da Motta International Music Competition in 2010.
He has performed in Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Australia, Italy, Germany, Russia, Serbia, Belgium, Brazil, Austria, Macedonia, Japan, and Taiwan. His notable performances include the Imperial Hermitage Theater and Briantzev Theater in St. Petersburg, Stadsschouwburg and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Lucent Hall in The Hague, Jerusalem Theater, and Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall.
He has also performed in prominent venues such as Sala Suggia of Casa da Música, Gulbenkian Museum, Teatro S. Luiz, Teatro S. Carlos, Grande Auditório CCB, Convento São Francisco, Serralves Foundation Auditorium, Hôtel de Ville of Brussels, Wiener Zaal and Solitar of Mozarteum Salzburg, and Mendelssohnhaus Leipzig, among others. Between 2006 and 2009, he collaborated with choreographer Ton Simons and Dance Works Rotterdam in productions that presented the first book of “The Well-Tempered Clavier” by J. S. Bach across the Netherlands.
He is dedicated to promoting Portuguese musical heritage, premiering works by Frederico de Freitas, J. D. Bomtempo, Nicolau Ribas, and António Fragoso. The piece “Bamboleio” by Alexandre Delgado was dedicated to him.
His performances have been broadcast live for Euroradio (EBU), Kol Ha Musica IBA (Israel), RTP2, Antena 2, and ABC Classic (Australia). He has recorded albums for Codarts featuring works by Prokofiev and Stravinsky, and for the António Fragoso Association.
He has been invited to perform at festivals such as Sintra, Mafra, Cistermúsica, Quatro Estações de Vidago, Primavera de Viseu, Euro-Mediterraneo, Alfonso Rendano (Italy), Sommerakademie Mozarteum Salzburg, and Openlook St. Petersburg.
As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras such as Sinfonia Rotterdam, Porto National Orchestra, Rotterdam Ensemble, Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, Filarmonia das Beiras, Classical Orchestra of Espinho, and others, under the direction of renowned conductors including Lior Shambadal, Conrad van Alphen, and Marc Tardue.
He served as an assistant piano professor at Codarts in Rotterdam and Schola Cantorum in Paris and has given masterclasses and lectures at institutions like Kawai Omotesando in Tokyo, Chinese Culture University, and National Chiao Tung University in Taipei. He has been a jury member in significant competitions including the Taiwan International Piano Ensemble Competition, Fujairah International Piano Competition, and the Viseu International Piano Competition.
He is a founder, board member, and regular professor at the International Music Academy “Aquiles Delle Vigne”, Coimbra World Piano Meeting, and the International Piano Meeting of Sardoal. He also teaches at the Wiener Musikseminar, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and the Escuela Superior Musical Arts in Madrid.

MEI ZHU
Professor Mei Zhu is the Director of the Piano Department at the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music and holds a Doctorate in Musical Arts. She is a board member of the Piano Society within the Chinese Musicians Association and Vice-President of the Piano Professional Committee of the Zhejiang Musicians Association.
In the field of education, Professor Zhu has made substantial contributions. She is frequently invited to serve on the jury of major Professional Piano Competitions, both in China and abroad. Her students have won numerous awards in various national and international competitions. She was honored with the title of Outstanding Expert by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture.
As a concert artist, Professor Zhu has performed across the USA and Asia. Her performances, characterized by intelligence and passion, have received widespread acclaim. The Denver Post praised her playing as “going beyond technique to touch the emotional core.” Paul Badura-Skoda described her Mozart interpretations as “intelligent” and “full of beauty.” She won first prize at the Asia-Pacific Chamber Music Competition and has performed with leading orchestras such as the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.
As a chamber musician, Professor Zhu has actively collaborated with renowned musicians. She has performed in numerous chamber music concerts in prestigious venues, including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall and the Shanghai Concert Hall. Her chamber music performances have not only demonstrated her versatility but also deepened her musical understanding, further enhancing her position and prominence in the musical community.

OLIVIER GARDON
Olivier Gardon currently teaches at the École Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris. He previously taught at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover (HMTMH), the Conservatoire Régional de Paris (CRR), and many other universities, including Seoul National University, Yonsei University in Seoul, Toho Gakuen in Tokyo, and Mozarteum Salzburg.
He is regularly invited to give masterclasses in France, Austria, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Portugal, the USA, and other countries. Gardon has served as a jury member in international competitions, including the Marguerite Long-Thibaud, Cincinnati World Piano Competition, Tbilisi International Piano Competition, Valencia Iturbi International Piano Competition, Hastings Piano Competition, and International Piano Competition in Panama, among others.
At the age of seven, Gardon caught the attention of Hungarian pianist Lili Kraus. He continued his studies at the Conservatory of Nice and the National Superior Conservatory of Music (CNSM) in Paris, with Pierre Sancan and Jean Hubeau, and further refined his skills under the guidance of Jean Fassina, Géza Anda, Lili Kraus, and Yörgy Sebök.
He has won prizes in prestigious international competitions, including the Marguerite Long Competition (1973), the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition (1975), the Viotti International Music Competition in Monza, and the Casella Piano Competition in Naples and Senigallia. Since then, his solo and chamber music career has led him to perform in the world’s most renowned concert halls, such as Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Salle Pleyel, Royal Festival Hall and Barbican Center in London, Carnegie Recital Hall in New York, Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg, Bunka Kaikan and Kioi Hall in Tokyo, and Dvořák Hall in Prague.
He has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Chamber Orchestra, and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of conductors such as Karl Münchinger, Ferdinand Leitner, Pierre Dervaux, Uri Segal, Theodor Guschlbauer, Davis Shallon, Serge Baudo, and Jean-Claude Casadesus.
Gardon’s discography includes works by Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Schumann, the complete piano works of Vierne, and the complete chamber music of Alkan (awarded the Special Prize by the Nouvelle Académie du Disque Français). In 2011, Bärenreiter published a new urtext edition of Vierne’s “Préludes and Nocturnes” for piano, revised by Gardon.

ROMAN RABINOVICH
Praised by The New York Times for his ‘uncommon sensitivity and feeling’, the eloquent pianist Roman Rabinovich was the winner of the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 2008. His subsequent career has led him to perform throughout Europe and the USA in venues as Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Cité de la Musique in Paris and Washington DC’s Kennedy Center.
Roman Rabinovich has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra, Meininger Hofkapelle, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, NFM Leopoldinum, KBS Symphony, Prague Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic and all the major Israeli orchestras, and has collaborated with conductors such as Sir Roger Norrington, Zubin Mehta, Ludovic Morlot, Kristjan Järvi, Michael Stern, Christoph Koenig, Gerard Schwarz and Joseph Swensen. He has garnered critical acclaim for performances of concertos of all periods, ranging from Bach to Lutoslawski.
Highlights of the 2024-25 season include returns to Wigmore Hall for a series of three recitals, as well as to the Lammermuir Festival in Scotland and the Liszt Academy Chamber Music Festival in Budapest, and his concerto debut with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Roman Rabinovich also returns to Israel for a recital tour and concerto performances with the Haifa Symphony. The 2024-25 season also has a particular focus on JS Bach’s Golberg Variations, with a number of performances scheduled, including in London (Wigmore Hall) and Vienna (Bösendorfer-Zyklus), to coincide with a planned recording release in May 2025.
Dubbed ‘a true polymath, in the Renaissance sense of the word’ (Seen & Heard International), Rabinovich is also a composer and visual artist with a repertoire spanning six centuries, from Byrd to Boulez and beyond. He has won critical acclaim for interpretations of the music of Haydn; he has performed Haydn Sonata cycles at the Lammermuir and Bath Festivals in UK and at ChamberFest Cleveland in the US; he has also appeared at the Herbstgold Festival in Eisenstadt, and curated a three-concert Haydn Day at Wigmore Hall in 2022. He has also released two albums of Haydn Sonatas on First Hand Records to great critical acclaim, with BBC Music Magazine noting ‘the elegance and liveliness of Rabinovich’s keyboard style are, indeed, a joy to listen to, and his unfailing musicality and inventiveness allows him to penetrate to the expressive heart of Haydn’s world.’
Roman Rabinovich made his Israel Philharmonic debut under Zubin Mehta aged 10, having immigrated to Israel a year before from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Seymour Lipkin, he went on to earn his masters- degree at the Juilliard School where he studied with Robert McDonald. He was among the first of three young pianists to be championed by Sir András Schiff for his ‘Building Bridges’ series. Together with his wife, violinist Diana Cohen, he is co-director of the ChamberFest Cleveland and ChamberFest West (Calgary) Festivals

SHAO LING
Shao Ling is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro and an integrated researcher at the INET-md Center for Studies in Music and Dance. She holds a PhD in Music from the University of Aveiro (2011), a Master’s in Piano Performance from the Rotterdam Conservatorium – Codarts (2001), and a Bachelor’s in Music Education from the University of Aveiro (1998).
As a concert artist, she has presented solo and chamber music recitals, as well as orchestral concerts, in major auditoriums and festivals across Portugal, France, Italy, Ireland, and China.
She has won awards in competitions such as “Cidade de Covilhã,” “Solistas da Juventude Musical Portuguesa,” “Prémios Jovens Músicos da RDP,” and “Juventude Musical Portuguesa.” She is frequently invited to serve on the jury of international piano competitions in both Portugal and China.
She was a scholarship recipient of the Fundação Oriente, with which she maintains a close relationship in promoting Chinese musical culture in Portugal and vice versa. Building upon her doctoral thesis, she continued research in cultural studies of classical music, with a particular interest in the interaction between Western and Chinese music of the 20th and 21st centuries. She has published numerous books and articles in Portugal, Brazil, Italy, and China.