Classical judges
Noriko Ogawa
Piers Lane
Martin Roscoe
Barry Wordsworth

Piers Lane
London-based Australian pianist Piers Lane has a flourishing international career that has taken him to more than forty countries. Recent and forthcoming highlights include his return to New York’s Lincoln Center for a solo recital and to play the mighty Bliss concerto with the American Symphony Orchestra, as well as concerto appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony, London Philharmonic, Hallé and Ulster orchestras, a solo recital at Symphony Hall, Birmingham for the BBC and a three concert series entitled Metamorphoses at Wigmore Hall. 
Lane has now added a new string to his bow with his appointment as Artistic Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. In addition to this commitment, in 2007 he plays with The Queensland Orchestra and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. As well as solo recitals in Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane and Melbourne, his Australasian engagements include a ten-concert tour with the Australian String Quartet.

Lane’s long-standing partnership with the British violinist Tasmin Little continues with a current UK tour. A popular visitor to international festivals, he returns to Como Autumn Music in Italy; Petworth in the UK, Schloss Vor Husum in Germany and Bard in New York State. Five times soloist at the BBC Proms, his concerto repertoire exceeds 75 works and his extensive discography includes, on the Hyperion label, much admired recordings of Percy Grainger, the complete Scriabin Preludes and the original version of Delius’ Piano Concerto. For BBC Radio 3, Piers Lane wrote and presented the popular 54-part series The Piano and regularly presented BBC Legends. In 1994 he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, where he has been a professor of piano since 1989.

Noriko Ogawa
Noriko Ogawa was awarded third prize in the 1987 Leeds International Piano Competition and has since achieved considerable renown in Europe, America and in her native Japan where she is a national celebrity. She regularly works with conductors like Sinaisky, Lazarev, Slatkin, Dutoit, Vonk, Herbig, Tortelier, Mann and Otaka. Recent and forthcoming concerts include recitals at Birmingham Symphony Hall, Bridgewater Hall, City of London Festival, recitals throughout the US, Japan, Kenya and Singapore and concerts with the BBC Scottish, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony, BBC Philharmonic and the Tokyo Symphony. Plans also include a solo tour of Australia, a collaboration with upcoming composer Dai Fujikura and a debut with Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vanska.
Ogawa is also in demand as a jurist – regularly adjudicating the piano final and grand final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. Ogawa has been appointed as one of the advisors for a new concert hall in her hometown in Japan, the MUZA Kawasaki Symphony Hall, and has just been awarded the Okura Prize for her outstanding contribution to music in Japan. Here she remains much in demand, appearing at major arts festivals, performing regularly with the major orchestras and making regular radio and television broadcasts for both NHK and Nippon television.

Ogawa records exclusively for BIS Records – her latest series is the complete solo works for piano by Debussy of which volumes one, two and three (the latter two winning Editor’s Choice in the March 2003 and January 2006 editions of Gramophone Magazine respectively and chosen as CD of the week, BBC Radio 3) have met critical acclaim the world over and increased her profile as a Debussy expert.

Martin Roscoe
Martin Roscoe performs as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician all over the world. As a concerto soloist, he has worked with many of the world’s leading conductors. A close relationship with the BBC has led to over four hundred broadcasts on Radio 3 and invitations to perform at the BBC Proms on six occasions. As a chamber musician, Martin has appeared with many celebrated musicians including Tasmin Little, Michael Collins, Peter Donohoe amd Emma Johnson. Recent releases amongst Martin’s numerous recording projects include Romantic piano concertos be Fuchs and Kiehl, Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto amd James MacMilan’s The Berserking.

Amongst his most recent recordings are Messiaen’s Visions de L’Amen with Steven Osbourne and a solo disc of JS Bach transcriptions (both on Hyperion). Martin was a professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music for six years (now holding an Honorary Associateship) and was also Head Of Keyboard at the Royal Northern College of Music. The Artistic Director of the Beverley Chamber Music Festival, Martin also initiated and directs the Ribble Valley International Pianos Week.

Barry Wordsworth
In 1989, he made his first televised appearance at the BBC Proms and has continued to conduct during every subsequent Prom season with the BBC Concert Orchestra, with whom he has also made frequent international tours, including their 50th Anniversary Tour to the United States in February 2002.

Highlights of Barry Wordsworth’s recent seasons have included a major tour to Japan with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and engagements with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Guangzhou Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony and Sydney Symphony as part of the Sydney Festival. In the UK, he has conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

In addition to his symphonic career, Mr Wordsworth has enjoyed a long and close relationship with the Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet. He was Music Director of the Royal Ballet until 1995 and regularly conducts key productions with them, including their June 2006 tour to Washington. At the Birmingham Royal Ballet he continues as Music Director, and he has recently entered into a new relationship with the Tokyo Ballet where he has now conducted three productions, including the Macmillan “Manon” in November 2005. In June 2007 he will conduct “La Fille mal gardée” at the ballet of the Opera National de Paris.

Jazz Judges
Jamie Cullum
Julian Joseph
Jason Rebello
Gwilym Simcock

Jamie Cullum
Born in Essex, and raised in Wiltshire, Jamie Cullum was obsessed with all types of music from an early age: rock, hip-hop, acid jazz and blues. He discovered jazz as a teenager, via artists like Herbie Hancock and Miles Davies, but also showed an interest in the groundbreaking Steely Dan albums purchased by his brother Ben. While studying English at college, he began working as a singer-pianist anywhere he could get a gig: on cruise ships, in pubs, even wedding receptions.

Here he crafted the explosive on-stage person (captured on the 2004 DVD Live at Blenheim Palace) that would win him accolades in The New York Times and Variety in the years that followed. When Universal Classics and Jazz snatched up the rising talent in the spring of 2003, and sent him into the studio to make the 2 million selling album, Twentysomething, he was ready for the rigors – and joys – that waited ahead.

With his latest release, Catching Tales, Jamie Cullum continues to redefine where the parameters of pop, and jazz – indeed, all musical genres – are drawn. “At first I didn’t think certain songs had a place in what I was doing with jazz, but I’ve realised that everything does, and that reaffirms my belief that jazz is the greatest platform to do whatever you want. People ask why I play jazz. It’s because you can take it to so many different places. You can embrace dance music, rock, pop music, classical, funk, everything...

Julian Joseph
Virtuosos pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger and broadcaster, Julian Joseph is the undisputed heir to the global house of jazz. Acclaimed by critics and audiences the world over, Julian never fails to inspire with his mastery of the keyboard, the versatility of his musicianship, and the seemingly limitless scope of his creative imagination. Always relaxed and self-assured, Julian is completely at home on any stage and if front of any band. His passion for music is palpable, and his desire to communicate that passion is compelling.

Over the past two decades Julian has developed and expanded his musical capabilities in a staggering array of forms. As a solo performer he holds audiences rapt from the minute he sits down at the piano, undaunted by either the vastness or intimacy of the platform. He is to be seen at all the major international festivals, has toured the globe with his Trio and Quartet, Electric Band and orum Project band, and directed and performed with his All-Star Big Band at some of the grandest venues in the UK to audiences of thousands.

Jason Rebello
Jason Rebello was voted Most Promising Newcomer of the Year for 1988 in Wire magazine and then picked up several major Jazz Awards including the prestigious Pat Smythe award and The Perrier British Jazz Awards. Apart from leading his own trio, he has appeared in the past with notable artistes such as Bud Shank, Wayne Shorter, Gary Burton, Branford Marsalis, Tommy Smith, Jean Toussaint, Desree, Mica Paris, Carleen Anderson and Omar as well as promoting his own band. He also performed several classical concerts, appearing with the Nice Symphony Orchestra and the Halle Orchestra in 1995.

Jason was asked by Sting to replace Kenny Kirkland in his band after his untimely death in 1998. Jason appeared on his Grammy-winning Brand New Day CD and spent two years on a sell-out world tour. On the night of September 11, 2001, Jason was part of the band that recorded the live DVD and CD All this Time at Sting’s home in Tuscany. In 2003 Jason recorded Sting’s DVD and CD Sacred Love, followed by an 18-month tour which ended with a Tsunami Benefit concert in Perth, Australia.

Jason has been working more recently with guitarist Jeff Beck, as well as various projects involving production and string arranging.

Gwilym Simcock
Gwilym Simcock has already been described as a ‘jazzier’ John Taylor, his style reminiscent of Keith Jarrett, his piano playing ‘exceptional’, ‘brilliant’, ‘dazzling’. His ‘harmonic sophistication and subtle dovetailing of musical traditions’ make him stand out as one of the most gifted performers and imaginative composers working on the British scene. Able to move effortlessly through jazz and classical he can at times inhabit both worlds as he does in the highly acclaimed trio Acoustic Triangle. His music is engaging, exciting, often unexpected, melodically enthralling, complex and wonderfully optimistic.

Gwilym graduated from the Royal Academy with a first-class honours degree and the coveted 'Principal's Prize' for outstanding achievement. At the age of 11 he attained the highest marks in the country for his Associated Board Grade 8 exams on both the piano and French horn.
Virtuosic pianist and composer Gwilym Simcock was the winner of the Rising Star award at the 2005 BBC Jazz Awards and described as “one of the great new discoveries of the London scene” (The Times).

He has performed with Tim Whitehead, Stan Sulzmann, Norma Winstone, Iain Ballamy, Bill Bruford, Julian Arguelles, Pete King and Don Weller, as well as leading his own groups. His sell-out concert in Cheltenham, recorded for broadcast on Radio 3, was part of his first major tour as bandleader and whilst in town, he also joined saxophone legend Lee Konitz for an acoustic set at the Everyman Theatre, which subsequently led to a national tour.

Gwilym has recently been chosen as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, the first jazz musician to receive this prestigious award.