The Jury
Jorma Panula
Born in 1930 in Finland, Academician Jorma Panula was the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of Turku Philharmonic (1963–1965), Helsinki Philharmonic (1965–1972) and Aarhus Symphony Orchestra in Denmark (1973–1976). One of the foremost pedagogues of conducting, he has served as Professor of Conducting at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (1972–1993), The Royal College of Music in Stockholm (1982–1988 and 1992–2006) and Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen (1988–1992). He has taught conducting all over the world in almost every European country, in the USA in New York, Tanglewood and Aspen, in Mexico, Australia and many Asian countries. In addition to his position at the helm of the Panula Academy, the Maestro is still travelling as a guest conductor, conducting professor and jury member of international conducting competitions.
Maestro Panula has had great influence on the world of conducting through teaching. He has been called the “hidden hand” behind the extraordinary line of fine conductors that came out of Finland including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Osmo Vänskä and Susanna Mälkki. Apart from conducting, he has composed a wide variety of music.
Maestro Panula was awarded the Rolf Schock Prize in 1997 and was listed as one of the “60 most powerful people in music” by BBC Music Magazine in 2000. Jorma Panula International Conducting Competition was founded in the City of Vaasa in the year 1999 and has been arranged every third year. The next competition will be arranged 3 - 7.9.2024. Jorma Panula is both artistic director and chairman of the jury in the competition. Jorma Panula is also known as a composer and has a large production of works for stage, orchestra and chamber ensembles.
Sian Edwards
Sian Edwards studied at the RNCM, and with Professor A.I. Musin at the Leningrad Conservatoire. She is Head of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music and Professor of Conducting at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts. She has worked with many of the world’s leading orchestras including Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland, Orchestre de Paris, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Berlin Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, MDR Leipzig, Ensemble Modern, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
She has worked at all the major UK opera houses. She made her operatic debut in 1986 conducting Weill's Mahagonny for Scottish Opera and her ROH debut in 1988 with Tippett's The Knot Garden. From 1993 to 1995 she was Music Director of ENO for whom her repertoire included Khovanshchina, Jenufa, Queen of Spades and Blond Eckbert. Other operatic engagements include Munich, Opéra Comique, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Vienna and Aspen.
Recent and future concert engagements include performances with Ensemble Modern, Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich, SWR Sinfonieorchester Freiburg, Kuopio Symphony, Klangforum Wien, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Musikfabrik, Landesjugendorchester Berlin, Deutscher Musikrat,, Jyväskylä Symphony, Sonderjyllands Symphony, Palestinian Youth Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic, São Paulo Symphony, St Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, Turku Philharmonic, Milton Keynes City Orchestra , Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Russian National Orchestra, as well as appearances at the BBC Proms, on tour to Singapore with London Sinfonietta and at the Edinburgh International Festival and Aldeburgh Festivals.
Operatic engagements include The Rape of Lucretia and La Traviata for the Theater an der Wien, Aida for the Royal Swedish Opera, Orpheus in the Underworld for ENO, Katya Kabanova, Iolanta and Mark Adamo’s Little Women for Opera Holland Park, Katya Kabanova for Opera North, The Rake’s Progress and Bluebeard’s Castle for Scottish Opera, David Bruce’s Nothing for Glyndebourne, Ades’ The Tempest for Oper Frankfurt, the world premieres of Turnage’s Coraline and Luke Bedford’s Through His Teeth for Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and a concert performance of Tippett’s King Priam at the Brighton Festival. She returned to Glyndebourne in 2025 to conduct Falstaff.
Bjarte Engeset
Bjarte Engeset is professor of conducting and head of the department of conducting at the University of Stavanger, Norway. As a teacher he has given a large number of master classes in Norway and internationally, including guest teaching at the Sibelius Academy in Finland.
He finished his diploma at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in 1989, as a student of Jorma Panula. In 1991 he was invited to study in Tanglewood, USA, with teachers like Seiji Ozawa, Gustav Meier, Simon Rattle and Marek Janowski.
Engeset has worked with many leading international orchestras. In 1997, he shared conducting duties with Mariss Jansons during the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra's Asia tour. His London debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997 was received with excellent reviews. He has conducted concerts, tours and/or CD recordings with, among others, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Sinfonieorchester, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic The Norwegian National Opera, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Zagreb Philharmonic.
Engeset has recorded more than 40 critically acclaimed CD recordings. The four CD recordings of Geirr Tveitt's Orchestral Suites from "100 Hardingtonar" and piano concertos (soloist Håvard Gimse) with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Naxos) have achieved several "Editor's Choice" in Gramophone Music Magazine and highest honors in BBC Music Magazine. Engeset also led the recordings of Grieg's music for orchestra in Naxos' "Grieg Orchestral Edition", with eight CDs. The series was recorded with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Malmö Symphony Orchestra.
Engeset is the academic leader of the Norwegian Music Heritage Project and has been Editor-in-chief of many critical editions with music by Norwegian composers such as Johan Svendsen, Fartein Valen, Geirr Tveitt, Ludvig Irgens-Jensen and Johan Halvorsen.
Engeset was artistic director and chief conductor of The Royal Norwegian Navy Band 2014 - 2020. Years 2007 - 2012 he was artistic director and chief conductor of DalaSinfoniettan in Sweden. He has also been chief conductor and artistic director of Aalesund Symphony Orchestra, Tromsø Symphony Orchestra and The Norwegian Wind ensemble. In 2001 - 2004 he was permanent guest conductor of the Brussels Philharmonic.
Anna-Maria Helsing
Anna-Maria Helsing has gained an outstanding reputation with leading Scandinavian orchestras and opera houses with her special affinity for the sound and style of modernism and contemporary music.
Anna-Maria Helsing has been appointed as Chief Conductor of BBC Concert Orchestra for three years from 2023/24 further to her highly successful partnership with the orchestra as Principal Guest Conductor since 2020. In 2025 she has started her position as Chief Conductor of the Vaasa City Orchestra in Finland. Currently she holds the position as Artistic Director of the high-profile chamber music festival Rusk in Jakobstad, Finland.
The Swedish-Finnish conductor has conducted major Scandinavian orchestras including Finnish Radio, Swedish Radio, Gothenburg, Malmö, Norrköping, Stavanger, Trondheim, Odense, Aalborg and Iceland Symphony, Royal Stockholm, Helsinki, Tampere and Arctic Philharmonic, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Lahti Sinfonia, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Finnish National, Royal Swedish, Gothenburg and Malmö Opera Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta and Lahti Sinfonia.
Furthermore she was at the rostrum of Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Musikkollegium Winterthur among others. With the BBC Concert Orchestra she returned to the BBC Proms in 2025.
Anna-Maria Helsing made her operatic debut at the Finnish National Opera with Adriana Mater by Kaija Saariaho and has conducted numerous world premieres such as Lisbeta by Karólina Eiriksdottir at the Aland Opera, Svitlana Azarova: Momo and the time thieves at the Royal Danish Opera, Magnus-Maria by Karólina Eiriksdottir on tour in Scandinavia. She has also conducted productions by Mark-Anthony Turnage: Coraline at Folkoperan Stockholm, Leevi Madetoja: The Ostrobothnians and Madame Butterfly at Tampere Opera, Leevi Madetoja: The Ostrobothnians and Olli Kortekangas: Picture of Life at Vaasa Opera, Fredrik Högberg: Stilla min eld at Pitea Chamber Opera, Le Nozze di Figaro at Aland Opera, Cimarosa: Il matrimonio Segreto at Savonlinna Opera Festival, a concert version of Nadia Boulanger: La ville morte at Göteborg Opera, La Traviata at Icelandic Opera and more.
Upcoming highlights encompass her debuts with Vancouver Symphony and Royal Swedish Opera, return visits to Swedish Radio Symphony, Göteborg Symphony, Finnish National Opera, etc. Anna-Maria Helsing began her career as a violinist and completed her studies as conductor at Sibelius Academy Helsinki. In addition she has attended masterclasses with Jorma Panula, Vladimir Jurowski and John Carewe.
Pietro Rizzo
Pietro Rizzo has just been named Music Director of the Sinfonieorchester St.Gallen and Chief Conductor of Theater St. Gallen in Switzerland, beginning from August 2026. Pietro Rizzo has conducted in some of the most important opera houses of the world, such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the New National Theater in Tokyo, the Opera at NCPA Beijing, Opera Australia in Sydney and Melbourne, the Rome Opera House, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, the ABAO in Bilbao, the Volksoper in Wien.
His wide repertory includes more than 50 titles from the whole operatic literature; he is also very active in the symphonic field and has conducted Symphony orchestras in Europe and the Nordic countries.
Pietro Rizzo was born in Rome, after graduating as a violinist from the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in his hometown in 1992, he continued his studies at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, USA. From 1997 to 2000 he studied conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, with Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam, graduating in 2000.
He has been Erste Kapellmeister at the Aalto Theater in Essen (2003-2007) and Chief Conductor at the Gothenburg Opera (2006-2009) and since 2000 he is a regular guest at the Finnish National Opera, having conducted more than 200 performances of opera and ballet.
He enjoys an intense activity with young musicians: as guest professor at the International Opera Academy from 2001 to 2019 he has worked with young singers on operatic repertoire and has a long collaboration with the Youth Orchestra of the Sinfonica de Galicia (La Coruña, Spain, from 2002 to 2017) where he also served as Music and Artistic Director.
He has performed and recorded for the Dutch Radio, Finnish Radio, Swedish Radio and for the Nightingale Classics (a CD of Bellini’s La straniera with Edita Gruberova) and Naxos Records (G. Rossini’s Le nozze di Teti e Peleo).
His latest productions projects include Rigoletto with Welsh National Opera; Tosca at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki; Nabucco at the Slovak National Opera in Bratislava. In summer 2026 he will conduct “La Traviata” at the Bregenz Opera Festival.
Michael Claussen
The secretary of the International Jury
Born in Hamburg, Germany. Studied musicology in Finland. Started his career at the Mikkeli Music Institute and the Mikkeli City Orchestra. From 1993 to 2018, he was the director of the Kuopio Music Centre and managing director of the Kuopio City Orchestra.
Since 2004, he has helped to establish cultural links with China, playing a major role in the twinning of Kuopio and Shanghai-Pudong. Has collaborated with Jorma Panula for more than three decades.
