Jury Members

Toks Dada (UK)

head of Classical Music at Southbank Centre

Toks Dada is a Classical Music Curator, serving as the Head of Classical Music at Southbank since December 2020, and a Fellow of the International Society for the Performing Arts.

In 2010 Toks founded the music commissioning and producing company Sinfonia Newydd in Wales, providing a platform for established and emerging composers, including as part of cross-artform projects. From 2015 to 2020, Toks worked at Town Hall Symphony Hall, Birmingham, including as Classical Programme Manager, and was the Guest Curator for the 2022 edition of Wonderfeel – the Netherlands’ biggest outdoor classical music festival.

Toks has served as a Board Director, most notably at Welsh National Opera, and Sinfonia Cymru, and as an Advisor at PRS for Music Foundation. As an advocate for change, Toks has championed new approaches within classical music, presenting and writing about attracting new audiences and engaging young people.

Toks holds a Masters in Arts Management and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and in July 2020 was appointed an Honorary Associate of the College.

www.toksdada.com | www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Asbjørn Keiding (Denmark)

director of Danske Ensembler, Orkestre og Operainstitutioner (DEOO)

Asbjørn Keiding is director of the business organisation Danske Ensembler, Orkestre og Operainstitutioner (DEOO) and boasts more than 20 years of experience in managing cultural organizations nationally and internationally. His expertise spans audience development, digitalization of classical music, music education programmers and EU projects. DEOO and Keiding are leaders in green transition, diversity, digitalization, and audience development in Denmark. With a unique background in leadership, classical music, and music education, Keiding brings a distinctive perspective to his work. He has also served on boards and state committees, enhancing his expertise in policy development. Keiding excels in organizational management, project creation, fundraising, and relationship-building with DEOO's members, political stakeholders, and industry partners.

C:N NET profile | www.deoo.dk

Ulrike Köstinger (Austria)

chief executive officer at Arts Consolidated (Operabase, CueTV)

Ulrike Köstinger has a strong performing arts industry background. She studied International Business Administration at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, and Arts Management at the University of Zurich. Ulrike worked in the casting office, organizing the Young Singers Project at the Salzburg Festival, then moved to work at L’Oréal Austria as a product manager in their marketing department. She also worked at Teatro alla Scala, as an executive assistant to Alexander Pereira. Up until 2020, Ulrike was the Director of Cooperation & Development for the classical music video-streaming-platform takt1. Ulrike has been in the management team of Arts Consolidated (Operabase, CueTV) for two years in the position of Chief Content and Partnership Officer before becoming CEO in January 2023. Outside of Arts Consolidated, she voluntarily serves as the chairwoman of “Next Generation – Friends of the Salzburg Festival” and is a passionate marathoner.

C:N NET profile | Operabase

Jahangir Salimkhanov (Azerbaijan)

cultural policy expert, arts manager, president of the administrative council of UNESCO IFPC

Jahangir Salimkhanov is an initiator, curator, facilitator, and promoter of projects in various cultural fields, including several multidisciplinary performance productions in the field of classical, traditional and contemporary music.

He is a lecturer, panelist, speaker and moderator at festivals, conferences and other cultural events in Azerbaijan and abroad - from Abu Dhabi to Vancouver and from Oslo to Bangkok. For nearly three decades, he has regularly taught courses on a variety of topics from contemporary music to cultural politics and creative processes. Recent notable publications include 6 of 50 essays in "Re-visiting Museums of Influence. Four Decades of Innovation and Public Quality in European Museums," (Routledge, London & NY, 2020).

Jahangir has been jury member for the BUMA Prize in the Netherlands (2008 & 2009) as well as for the RPS Chamber Music Composition Award (2008, 2009, 2010 & 2011). He is an advisor to the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, a member of the European Parliament of Culture, a member of the Coordination Office of the Silk Roads Living Heritage Network, and a member of CPDN - Cultural Policy Designers Network.

Jahangir Salimkhanov

Katja Frei (Germany)

director of education and outreach, Berliner Philharmoniker

Katja Frei has been the Berliner Philharmoniker's Director of Education and Outreach since September 2020. She is responsible for expanding sustainable partnerships in educational, social, and digital fields, as well as developing music education programs for people of all ages in Germany and abroad. Prior to her current position, she led the education department of the Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna for five years, establishing a new branch within the seasonal programme with a focus on community music projects and the development of inclusion programs. From 2010 to 2015, she was part of the establishment of the Otto Group’s CSR music project "The Young ClassX". Before this, she was an active orchestral musician in Germany, and holds a master’s degree in music management and music education as well as graduate diplomas in violin performance. Her activities as a conference speaker and lecturer have taken her to the U.S., Switzerland, Austria, and various universities in Germany.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Angela Acuña (Chile)

composer

Angela graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Catholic University of Chile in 1995. She collaborated with bands and soloists such as Ángel Parra, Quillapayun, Intiillimani Histórico and Manuel García. Together with Javiera Parra and Cristián López, she founded the group Malabia in 2004, with which she released a record. In 1998, she composed the music for the play Madame de Sade, and thus began a career that has led her to many soundtracks for theater, film, and television. In the theater, she has collaborated with many directors and performers, including Andrés Pérez Araya, Juan Radrigán and María Izquierdo. She has had extensive tours in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Cuba, Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia, USA and throughout Chile.

Angela is the winner of the Pulsar award for Best Music for Audiovisual, "Bestia" the stop motion short film (2021). During the year 2022 and with an upcoming release date, she composed and performed the music for the medium-length film "Las Cenizas" by Stjepan Ostoic. In the year 2022, she was appointed musical director of the National Dramaturgy Showcase.

During 2023 she composed and performed the original music for the shorts 'Wingka' by Ernesto Garrat and 'Emilia sends greetings' by Lando Ohmke. She is currently working with the prominent filmmaker Elisa Eliach for the animated series "Cuentos Nanay".

Instagram

Margaret S. Barrett (Australia)

professor and head, Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, Monash University

Margaret is Head of the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance at Monash University. Prior to that she was Head of the School of Music at The University of Queensland (2008 – 2020). She has held positions as a Director of the Australian Music Centre, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and the Queensland Music Festival. She has served as President of the International Society for Music Education (2012-2014), Chair of the World Alliance for Arts Education (2013-2015), Chair of the Asia-Pacific Symposium for Music Education Research (2009-2011), and National President of the Australian Society for Music Education (1999-2001). She has been awarded Fellowship of the Australian Society for Music (2012) and Honorary Life Membership of the International Society for Music Education (2022).

Her research investigates pedagogies of creativity, creative collaboration, ecological artistic citizenship, and expertise across the lifespan. This body of research has been supported by funding from the Australian Research Council, the British Council, and the Academy of Finland, and industry partners including the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Australian Children’s Music Foundation, Musica Viva Australia, and the Melbourne Recital Centre. She has been awarded a Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship (2018), elected Beaufort Visiting Research Fellow at St John’s College University of Cambridge (2019), a Senior Research at IRCAM (2019), and an Albi Rosenthal Fellowship in Musicology at the Bodleian Library Oxford. She has published extensively in the field with most recent publications including The Oxford handbook of early learning and development in music (with Graham F. Welch, OUP 2023) and Music education, ecopolitical professionalism and public pedagogy: Towards systems transformation. (with Heidi M. Westerlund,Springer, 2023).

Margaret S. Barrett

Jacob Greenberg (USA/Germany)

artist, member of the International Contemporary Ensemble

Pianist and multi-keyboardist, Jacob Greenberg’s work as a soloist and chamber musician has received worldwide acclaim. He is a longtime member of the International Contemporary Ensemble, with whom he has performed throughout the Americas and Europe. In his home base of Berlin, he directs Close Range, a teaching venue with diverse keyboards for canonical and modern repertoire. His touring concert series, Keyboard Play, spans centuries of music with period-specific and anachronistic instruments in a colorful historical dialogue. Recent highlights include concerts at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Boulez’s Sur Incises with the Seattle Symphony, and summer concerto appearances with the International Contemporary Ensemble at Lincoln Center and TIME:SPANS. His solo discs on New Focus Recordings include works from the Baroque to the present, with many new commissions. Mr. Greenberg is on the faculty of the Tanglewood Music Center, and has taught at Hunter College, The Juilliard School, and the State University of New York at Buffalo. His podcast, Intégrales, explores meaningful intersections of music and daily city life.

www.jacobgreenberg.net

Matthew Lynch (UK)

conductor

British/German conductor, Matthew Lynch, enjoys a busy international career. The 2022/23 season saw him make debuts with, among others, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

In the 2023/24 season he will be returning to London’s Southbank Centre to perform Beethoven’s Eroica with the Chineke! Orchestra and making debuts with, the Philharmonia, the London Mozart Players, Sinfonia Viva, and the French chamber orchestra, Le Balcon.

A keen advocate of contemporary classical music, Matthew is a regular collaborator of the composers Max Richter and Devonté Hynes and has performed their music with ensembles internationally. These collaborations continue into the next season, with concerts at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris and the London Coliseum.

In addition to symphonic and contemporary repertoire, Matthew is a regular conductor of opera, and in recent seasons has conducted new productions of La Bohème, Rusalka, and Don Giovanni in Dresden, and Treemonisha at London’s Grimeborn Festival. He also continues to play an active role in music education, working with a number of youth and training orchestras, including the London Schools’ Symphony Orchestra, the Southbank Sinfonia, and the Chineke! Junior Orchestra.

Matthew Lynch studied at Oxford University and the Hochschule für Musik, Dresden. He was a conducting fellow of the Aspen Music Festival and School with Robert Spano and a participated in the Tanglewood Conducting Seminar with Stefan Asbury.

www.matthewlynch.org

Hendrik Storme (Belgium)

director Klarafestival / Flanders Festival / B'Rock Orchestra Gent

Hendrik Storme (1977) is a Belgian cultural manager originally from Ghent. Immediately after his studies in communication sciences and social work, he started his career in the Flemish classical music and cultural world. He gained his first work experience as a communications officer at the Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen and Muziekcentrum De Bijloke. In 2005, he co-founded the baroque orchestra B'Rock, which he managed until 2020. Under his artistic and general leadership, this Flemish baroque orchestra grew into a successful international period orchestra that has given concerts on prestigious stages in all corners of the world. The orchestra is distinguished by its broad repertoire and its many interdisciplinary collaborations with stage directors and choreographers. Between 2009 and 2020, Hendrik Storme also headed the Klara Festival (Festival of Flanders Brussels) as artistic director. During that period, the Klara Festival grew into a popular and indispensable player in Brussels in the field of classical music. His accessible and adventurous approach allowed the festival to attract a large and diverse audience. Since 2020 Hendrik Storme has headed the international art center De Singel in Antwerp, one of the largest Flemish art institutions and also the only center in Belgium where music, theater, dance and architecture come together at the highest level.

C:N NET profile | desingel.be

Hanako Yamaguchi (USA)

independent artistic producer and arts consultant, board member of ISPA

Hanako Yamaguchi is an independent artistic producer and arts consultant whose recent work includes producing FRAGMENTS, a special project with cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and consulting for the Celebrity Series of Boston, WQXR (New York's classical music radio station), the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and Little Island (NY).

Prior to that, she was Director of Music Programming at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, one of the key leaders in Lincoln Center's evolution from a classical music promoter to a commissioner and producer of multidisciplinary presentations. Hanako was a co-founder of the White Light Festival, a driving force behind the revival of the Mostly Mozart Festival, and curator of the Great Performers concert series.

She is a board member of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) and has served as a juror for Concert Artists Guild, Oratorio Society of New York, Philadelphia Music Project, and Young Concert Artists.

Hanako Yamaguchi