Jury Members

Lyle Chan (Australia)

composer

Composer Lyle Chan is known for his socially-conscious works combining powerful emotional impact and intellectual rigour. His 90-minute String Quartet, a memoir of his years as an AIDS activist in the 1990s, was hailed by John Corigliano as "a serious and deeply felt work of art born out of a seemingly endless plague." He has produced over 200 recordings, including world premieres of John Tavener’s Lament for Jerusalem and numerous Australian works, notably of Peter Sculthorpe. He is co-founder of the Extended Play Festival of New Music in Sydney.

Susanna Eastburn (UK)

chief executive, Sound and Music

Susanna has been chief executive of Sound and Music since 2012. Previous roles include director of music at Arts Council England and artistic director and chief executive of Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. She was one of the first Clore Leadership Fellows. She is chair of Orchestras for All and a trustee of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. In 2018 she received an MBE, whilst in 2017 she was awarded a Gold Badge Award by the Ivors Academy in recognition of her support for composers. At Sound and Music, she has led widely-recognised pioneering work on gender equality and diversity.

“Being on the jury for Classical:NEXT 2020 is hugely exciting. Amidst great changes in wider society including the climate emergency, classical music needs to remain relevant and sustainable - and it can also play an important and inspiring role. I look forward to seeing the submissions and to the final programme!"

Rainer Kahleyss (Germany)

co-founder and chairman, CLASS / founder & owner, Klassik Center

Rainer Kahleyss trained as an economist before going on to study for a doctorate in ethnomusicology and communication in Berlin. In 1984, he became an editor at music publisher Bote & Bock in Berlin. He previously worked for music publisher Bärenreiter and the Neuwerk music shop. Since 1996, Kahleyss has run his own production and distribution company, Klassik Center Kassel. In the meantime, he also founded the company Klangfarben Kassel, selling high end equipment. He is a co-founder and chairman of the Association of Classical Independents in Germany (CLASS).

C:N NET profile | CLASS Germany

"As one of the founding members of Classical:NEXT, I'm really happy to see how successful and quickly our baby became an adult (thanks to the great work of the team behind) and focal point for the exchange about the future of classical music."

Joanna Lee (Hong Kong/US)

founder & chairman, Museworks

Joanna Lee attended London’s Royal College of Music and completed her PhD at New York’s Columbia University. Having worked in the non-profit world and academia, she started Museworks Limited in 2002, building cultural bridges between the US, Europe and Asia. She helped facilitate such new works as San Francisco Opera’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter and Dream of the Red Chamber and Asia Society Hong Kong’s trilingual chamber opera Mila. In the past 15 years, she has handled the media profile for America’s leading orchestras on their Asia tours.

Graham McKenzie (UK)

artistic director, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

Graham McKenzie has been the artistic director and chief executive of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival since 2006 and an honorary research fellow at the University of Huddersfield since 2008. He was director of the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow from 1997 – 2006. Graham is a curator and writer in the field of experimental and new music and is a founding member of the Network of International Curators and Festivals (NICAF), co-founder and director of Out Of The Machine, co-founder of sonic-a in Glasgow, as well as the co-founder of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. He is the programme adviser of the Glasgow International Jazz Festival and a member of the Europe Jazz Network. Graham McKenzie is also a published playwright.

Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival

Matthias Mutzweiler (Germany)

ceo, NAXOS deutschland

Matthias Lutzweiler is ceo of Naxos Germany since 2011, based near Munich, Germany. He is also a member of the Senior Board of Naxos and furthermore responsible for certain Naxos owned labels like Orfeo and Oehms. Born in 1967, he worked and was later in charge of the hänssler Classic and SWR labels for over 20 years. His focus is on adapting the business to the changing environment in the classical music industry, especially in digital and in social media. He has a commercial education, loves to play the violin, is a multicultural world citizen and is fully engaged in the classical music sector.

Marjorie Nétange (France/Spain)

director of development and communication, Reina Sofia School of Music

Originally from France, Marjorie Nétange now lives in Spain. She graduated from HEC Business School and spent 10 years working in international companies, occupying positions in business development and corporate strategy. In 2015, she switched to the cultural sector, founding a consulting firm specialised in fundraising for cultural projects. In 2016, she joined the Reina Sofia School of Music, a renown Madrid-based centre for professional training of young musicians. As the director of development and communication, she manages sponsorship, business development, innovation projects and communication.

Masa Spaan (The Netherlands)

senior programmer classical music, De Doelen Concert Hall

Masa Spaan is a Dutch curator and the newly appointed senior programmer of classical music at de Doelen in Rotterdam. She received a Masters in Musicology, Philosophy and Music Programming. Due to her international research into the revitalisation of concert practices and broad practical experiences, Masa became a specialist in innovative programming. Her main focus is creating forward thinking concert projects, ensuring a high quality of music while re-imagining the concert practice in a vitally staged way. Masa is regularly invited to act as an artistic adviser, visiting lecturer, publicist and guest curator for various organisations.

C:N NET profile | De Doelen

"Classical:NEXT challenges us to reimagine our concert practice in a contemporary and vital way. As curator and program developer I am looking for forward thinking programs, concepts and ideas that will explore new horizons and can give a creative but honest future to classical music in its broadest way."

Eleanor Ward (UK)

freelance creative producer and consultant

Eleanor Ward is a freelance creative producer and consultant, working across the new music scene. She was previously executive director of nonclassical – an events producer and record label showcasing the best new classical, experimental and electronic music. Eleanor started her career in arts funding, before working as ensemble manager, festival producer and project manager for various contemporary music organisations. She also worked as festival producer at Field Day for two years, prior to joining nonclassical.

C:N NET profile

Jan Hiddink (The Netherlands)

programme manager, WORM

Jan Hiddink is the programme manager at WORM, making the unexpected in music, film and art happen on a daily basis. Jan has a long history in putting on programmes that present the unusual, the forgotten or the overlooked. Before WORM he was a programmer for Paradiso and Melkweg in Amsterdam, putting on special events and programming festivals like Holland Festival, Sonic Acts, Tracks & Traces and 5 Days OFF. Arriving at WORM in 2013, he found his very own safe haven in this home of the avant garde.

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“Classical:NEXT offers exciting, high quality insights in where music is to go in the 21st century and is therefore a highly stimulating event.”