Russian Pianist Pavel Kolesnikov Wins 2012 Honens International Piano Competition

Aleksandar Madžar (Serbia / Belgium)
Pianist Aleksandar Madžar has performed throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia and has worked with some of the world's leading conductors, including Paavo Berglund, Iván Fischer, Paavo Järvi, Carlos Kalmar, John Nelson, Libor Pešek, André Previn and the late Marcello Viotti. He is a regular guest artist at festivals including the Bad Kissingen and Schleswig-Holstein, the Ivo Pogorelich Festival at Bad Wörishofen, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Davos, Roque d'Anthéron, Salzburg, Sintra and Aldeburgh. His recordings include the Chopin piano concertos with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Dmitri Kitaenko (BMG / Classic FM), a disc of Chabrier's music for two pianos (Arion) and a disc of Elliott Carter, Rachmaninov and Schnittke (Intim Musik) with cellist Louise Hopkins. He is professor at the Royal Flemish Conservatoire, Brussels, and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Bern. Madžar was third prizewinner at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1996. He previously served on the 2009 Honens Competition Jury.

HaeSun Paik (South Korea)
Pianist HaeSun Paik has performed throughout the world following triumphs at major international piano competitions including a Gold medal at the 1989 William Kapell International Competition (United States), a Silver at the 1991 Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition of Belgium, a Bronze at the 1994 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition (Russia), as well as a prize in the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition (United Kingdom). Paik has appeared with the world's leading orchestras including the Boston, London, National (Washington D.C.) and NHK (Japan) Symphonies, and the Japan, Moscow, Munich, Radio France, Tokyo and Warsaw Philharmonics. She has given recitals at New York's Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Bank of Boston Celebrity Series at Jordan Hall, and in concert halls in major cities of Europe, North and South America and Asia. Paik is a graduate of the New England Conservatory where she studied with Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun. She was the youngest pianist to be appointed music professor at Seoul National University in Korea (1994). After teaching at the university for ten years, she decided to give up her professorship in order to broaden her musical experiences and views in life. She now divides her time between the United States and Korea where she is the Artistic Director of Busan Music Festival.

Jon Kimura Parker (Canada / United States)
Pianist Jon Kimura "Jackie" Parker was born, raised and educated in Vancouver. He studied with Edward Parker, Keiko Parker, Robin Wood, Marek Jablonski and Lee Kum-Sing, as well as with Adele Marcus, under whom he received his doctorate at The Juilliard School in 1988. Parker has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra and with the major orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis, and throughout Canada. He has given recitals in London, New York, Chicago, Munich, Budapest, Sydney, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and has performed with musicians including Joshua Bell, James Ehnes, Lynn Harrell and the Tokyo String Quartet. He has also jammed with Doc Severinsen and Bobby McFerrin and collaborated with Audra McDonald and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Parker is Professor of Piano at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and serves as Artistic Advisor for the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. He has recorded for Telarc with André Previn, Yoel Levi and Peter Schickele. Gold Medal winner at the 1984 Leeds International Piano Competition, Parker was also awarded the Order of Canada in 1999. He previously served on the Jury of the inaugural Honens Competition in 1992.

Michael Spring (United Kingdom)
Scottish recording executive Michael Spring developed a love of classical music in his early teens, first as a listener and only later as an enthusiastic, but – in his words – rather untalented pianist. After initial university studies in philosophy and biochemistry he realized he could make his hobby his career and continued with postgraduate work in music, receiving a Masters in Music from the University of East Anglia where he researched performance practice in early piano recordings and trained as a classical recording engineer and producer. Spring has now worked in the record industry for 25 years, 23 of them spent at Hyperion Records. In addition to running the commercial side of Hyperion's business, he has been responsible for most of the recent piano output. He has brought such pianists as Stephen Hough, Marc-André Hamelin and Steven Osborne to the label and has created the hugely successful Romantic Piano Concerto series that has released more than 50 volumes. Projects for which he has been responsible have won seven Gramophone awards, two of which have also become "Record of the Year." In 2005 he took over the APR label, which specializes in re-issuing historic piano recordings.

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