The jury

The jury of the competition is made up of 5 well-known conductors. Here the names and CVs.

Justin Doyle [United Kingdom]

Justin Doyle is chief conductor and artistic director of the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin. Born in 1975 in Lancaster, England, Doyle’s musical education began as a chorister at Westminster Cathedral and continued as a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge under S. Cleobury. He won second prize in the prestigious Cadaqués Orchestra Conducting Competition in 2006 in Barcelona and was awarded the Conductor Fellowship with the BBC Singers, with whom he continues to work today. Doyle's work as Chief Conductor of RIAS Kammerchor Berlin began in 2017 with a critically acclaimed debut with the Marienvesper 1610 by C. Monteverdi at the newly opened P. Boulez Saal in Berlin and subsequently on tour in Japan. Since then, he has initiated a long-term series of major commissioned works, which the choir presents as world premieres each season; and he has further expanded the choir's repertoire with a particular focus on renaissance polyphony, as well as folk songs from all over the world. Their recent recordings of a cappella works by B. Britten, J. Haydn's Missa Cellensis and G. Friedrich Händel's Messiah have been widely celebrated by the audience and critics. Doyle's close relationship with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin sees them collaborate on a major survey of the works of Händel in the Berliner Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, alongside unusual projects such as the large-scale Missa Salisburgensis by H. Biber in the Berliner Dom. Other orchestras with whom Doyle has worked in recent years include Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Resonanz, Orchestra of Opera North and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. Current and future plans include projects with Swedish Radio Choir, MDR-Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Kammerakademie Potsdam, BBC Singers and Coro Sinfônico do Estado de São Paulo, with repertoire ranging from Tallis and Cavalli to Stravinsky and Gubaidulina. Justin Doyle is also in demand as an opera conductor, especially in works by Mozart, Haydn and Britten, with notable productions at Opera North, Buxton Festival and Garsington Festival. He regularly leads education projects with various youth orchestras and choirs, and is both professor for choral conducting at the Hochschule für Musik H. Eisler Berlin and distinguished visiting artist for choral conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

Georg Grün [Germany]

Georg Grün studied church music, school music, Catholic theology, musicology, and conducting, and he taught music and courses on the Catholic religion for several years at a lycée for the arts. He is considered to be one of the most sought-after international choral conductors and specialists for choral sound. He founded the KammerChor Saarbrücken in 1990 and has been its artistic director ever since then. He has won the most important international and national choir competitions, he gives concerts at numerous renowned music festivals and he regularly produces CDs with Saarländischer Rundfunk, Carus and Rondeau Productions. From 2000 to 2013 he held a professorship for choral conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Mannheim. There, he founded a chamber choir with which he also won several international prizes (like Cork and Maribor). In 2012, Georg Grün changed to the University of Music Saar as a professor and became artistic director of the BachChor Saarbrücken. Since 2008 he has been a baritone member of Daarler Vocal Consort. Georg Grün works as guest conductor and guest professor, juror and tutor at international masterclasses for choral conducting around the world. Since 2010 he has been a mentor at the forum for conductors of the German Music Council and since 2015, he has been Chairman at the jury of the International Chamber Choir Competition Marktoberdorf since 2015. He is increasingly concerned with improvisation (piano / organ) and performance and is also active as a composer and arranger. The 2018-19 season of concerts, lectures, master classes and guest performances has taken him to France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, Spain and the United States.

Ursa Lah [Slovenia]

Urša Lah studied musical education at the Ljubljana Music Academy (Slovenia) and Choral Conducting at the University of Tromsø (Norway). She was the conductor of the Mixed Youth Choir Veter (Jeunesses Musicales Ljubljana), with which she won many Gold Plaques and First Prizes at competitions in Slovenia and in Europe (Neerpelt, Budapest, Pohlheim, Lindenholzhausen, Preveza, Bratislava), several special prizes and "Best Conductor" awards. Urša Lah was also the chief conductor of the National Radio Chamber Choir with which she had several first performances of works by contemporary Slovenian composers. In the years 2002-2009 she was the chief conductor and artistic director of APZ Tone Tomšič University of Ljubljana. With the choir she won many First Prizes and Golden Plaques at national and prestigious international choral competitions (Tampere, Cantonigros, Maribor, C.A. Seghizzi in Gorizia, Varna, Olomouc) including the Grand Prix of Europe (Debrecen, 2008). At the International Competition in Varna 2007 she received the Best Conductor award.In recognition of her valuable work with choirs, Urša received the highest award of the Municipality of Ljubljana for cultural achievement in 2008, and in 2009 the award of Public Fund of the Republic of Slovenia for Cultural Activities. Since autumn 2009 Urša Lah lives in Norway. During the years 2010 – 2017 she taught choral conducting and ensemble leading at the University of Tromsø, she was the conductor of the Choir of Artic Philharmonic Orchestra, the artistic leader and conductor of Finnmark Operakor and the artistic leader and conductor of the University Choir Mimas. Currently she conducts the Choir of Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, she holds a position of Associate Professor of Ensemble leading at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology In Trondheim and works as a choir master for Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra and Artic Philharmonic Orchestra. She is a lecturer in educational seminars for choral conductors in Europe and Asia, a frequent member of adjudicating panels at international choral and conducting competitions, a guest conductor of professional choirs and recognised ensembles and one of two artistic leaders of the international Utopia & Reality Chamber Choir.

Lorenzo Donati [Italy]

Composer, conductor and violinist he studied in Arezzo and Florence, simultaneously attending master classes at the Music School of Fiesole, the Chigiana Academy of Siena and the Academy of France. As choir conductor, he graduated from the three-year course of the Guido d’Arezzo Foundation, continuing his studies with the master's degree. He performs intense concert activity as conductor with the Vocal Ensemble Vox Cordis and the UT ensemble with which he won the European Grand Prix of Choral Singing in 2016. Since 2016 he conducts the Guido Chigi Saracini Choir of the Siena Cathedral collaborating with the most important artists of the international scene. He also conducts the Chamber Choir of the Trento Conservatory. From 2011 to 2014 he conducted the Italian Youth Choir. With these groups and with the Experimenta Vocal Ensemble he has won first prizes and special prizes in national and international competitions such as Arezzo, Cantonigròs, Gorizia, Montreux, Senlis, Tours, Varna, Vittorio Veneto. In 2007, he won both categories of the M. Ventre Choir Conductors International Competition in Bologna. His compositions are regularly performed in different countries of the world, recorded by ensembles and soloists, and published by prestigious publishers. Among the obtained awards in international competitions we mention the prizes at the composition competitions of Arezzo, Gorizia, Rome, Avellino, Vittorio Veneto. He regularly collaborates with many national cultural institutions, is the artistic director of the choral activities of the Guido d'Arezzo Foundation, the Festival di Primavera and the City of Fano Polyphonic Meeting Festival, he is invited to teach as a vocal music expert and as a jury member in competitions of composition and choral music, in Italy and abroad. He is currently a teacher at the F.A. Bonporti Conservatory of Trento. He teaches at the Summer Academy of the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and is tutor of the three-year choir conducting school of the Guido d'Arezzo Foundation. www.lorenzodonati.it

Marco Faelli [Italy]

Marco Faelli graduated from the University of Parma with a degree in Theoretical Physics and he received his diploma in Orchestra Conducting from the "Verdi" Conservatory in Milan, perfecting his skills afterwards at the O. Respighi Academy in Rome with F. Nagy and H.P. Priem Bergrath, and then at I Pomeriggi Musicali with G. Gelmetti. Orchestra and choir conductor he worked at Teatro Regio in Parma, at Teatro Alla Scala in Milan, at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, in the Arturo Toscanini Foundation in Parma, at Arena di Verona, at Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, at Teatro San Carlo in Napoli and at Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Salerno. He also took on the activity of Choir Master with Radio France and Spanish Radio Television.With the groups he founded, the Collegium Farnesianum, the Maria Luigia Chamber Chorus and the Parma Philharmonic Chorus, he devoted himself to the religious and chamber repertoire, getting involved in research, transcription, the re-proposal of numerous unpublished operas, with special attention given to the philological criteria for performing. He has been for many years Artistic Director of the Incontri Musicali Farnesiani a demonstration of a collection of baroque music, which has taken place in Parma since 1997. He performed several unpublished works for the first time at many editions of the Verdi Festival and the Incontri Musicali Farnesiani, which were recorded on various CDs. These works are part of the musical tradition of various families who governed the dukedom of Parma: Farnese, Borbone, Maria Luigia of Austria. At the present time he is writing some publications on the original ways of performing Verdi's operas, which he has been working on for the past few years and Magia del coro (the Magic of the chorus), on chorus conduction (in collaboration with R. Gandolfi). As a teacher of interpretation of the opera score he collaborated with the Centre of Specialization for opera artists of the Teatro Alla Scala and with the Città di Osimo Opera and Choral Academy; he also teaches at the Showa University in Tokyo. He was a teacher at the Parma, Mantova, Reggio Emilia, Modena, Salerno Conservatories. He also became involved in an intense pianist performing activity in many concerts and he also wrote many essays in the musicology field.