JUDGES FOR THE FINAL ROUND OF THE 2026 COMPETITION

MAX LEVINSON

Pianist Max Levinson is known as an intelligent and sensitive artist with a fearless  technique. His international career was launched when he won First Prize at the Dublin  International Piano Competition. He is also recipient of other prestigious prizes including  the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Andrew Wolf Award. He has performed as soloist  with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Detroit Symphony, San  Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Oregon  Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Colorado Symphony, New World Symphony, Utah  Symphony, Boston Pops, and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and in recital at  New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore  Hall, Zürich’s Tonhalle, the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, and throughout the US, Canada, and  Europe. He is highly sought after as a performer of chamber music, and is an Artist Member of the Boston Chamber Music Society, and has collaborated with such musicians  as James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Anne Akiko Meyers, Pinchas Zukerman, Stefan  Jackiw, Lynn Harrell, and the Tokyo, Vermeer, Mendelssohn, Borromeo, Muir, and  Ulysses Quartets.  

Max Levinson is a graduate of Harvard and the New England Conservatory. His  principal teachers were Patricia Zander, Aube Tzerko and Bruce Sutherland. Here in  Boston, he serves on the faculty at both the Boston Conservatory and New England  Conservatory, and gives master classes at conservatories and colleges throughout the  country. Max Levinson is a Steinway Artist. 

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VICTOR ROSENBAUM

Internationally known pianist and educator, Victor Rosenbaum, has been a mainstay of Boston’s musical community for more than five decades. He studied with Rosina Lhevinne and Leonard Shure while earning degrees at Brandeis and Princeton. 

A committed chamber musician, he has collaborated with such artists as Leonard Rose, Laurence Lesser, Joseph Silverstein, James Buswell, Malcolm Lowe, and the Brentano, Borromeo, and Cleveland String Quartets. 

A renowned educator, Rosenbaum’s 16 years as Director and  President of the Longy School of Music (1985-2001) transformed the school into a full-fledged degree granting conservatory. He was on the faculty of Mannes School of Music (NY) from 2004-2017, a Visiting Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music, and a guest teacher at Juilliard. During his long tenure on the faculty of New England Conservatory, Rosenbaum chaired its Piano and Chamber Music Departments for more than a decade. Recently retired, he now devotes his time to guest teaching, master classes, recording, and concerts.

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JUDGES FOR THE SEMI-FINAL ROUND OF THE 2026 COMPETITION

SONYA OVRUTSKY FENSOME

SONYA OVRUTSKY FENSOME is a classical pianist, composer, and educator. She is a professor at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, and the director of M. Steinert and Sons Piano Academy in Boston.

Her performances are known for their fresh, imaginative, and passionate interpretation. Her extraordinary artistry brings new life to a wide array of piano repertoire – from Baroque to the 21st Century. Her album “Dreams in Black and White” is streaming on numerous platforms including Apple Music and Spotify, and her YouTube channel “From My Piano Room” is gaining recognition around the world.

Ms. Ovrutsky Fensome has performed in major venues in the United States, Europe, Russia, and South Africa – including Weill Carnegie Concert Hall and Lincoln Center in NY, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Aspen Music Festival, Palace de Beaux Arts in Brussels and Lucerne Music Festival. She performed as a soloist with the Aspen Festival Orchestra, Reno Philharmonic, and Neuchatel Festival Orchestra in Switzerland. She has performed in recitals with world renowned violinist Sarah Chang, and collaborates with her brother, violinist Mikhail Ovrutsky. Earlier in her career she worked as a collaborative pianist in the master classes and private lessons of professors Zakhar Bron, Dorothy DeLay, Mauricio Fuks, Itzhak Perlman, Vadim Repin, and Pinchas Zukerman. Her numerous competition awards include the Aspen Music Festival Competition and Concert Artist Competition in New York. Her duo CD with Mikhail Ovrutsky “Turning Points” recorded for Berlin Classics® has earned outstanding reviews and was selected as “CD of the Week” by RBB Kulturradio. 

Born in Moscow, Russia, into a family of classical musicians, Ms. Ovrutsky Fensome gave her first performance at age 5. At age 15, she gained world recognition upon winning the International Piano Competition in Senigalia, Italy. She was invited to study at the Juilliard School of Music as a full scholarship recipient, where she earned her Bachelors and Masters Degrees in piano performance, studying with legendary professors Herbert Stessin for piano and Felix Galimir for chamber music. 

Ms. Ovrutsky Fensome resides in Boston area with her husband and son.

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KONSTANTINOS PAPADAKIS

Born in Heraklion, Crete, Greece, Konstantinos Papadakis has been described by the press as “one of the greatest hopes of music” as well as a “spontaneous, honest artist.” The Boston Globe wrote: “Papadakis gave a stunning performance displaying great variety of attack, poetic lyricism, and wrists of carbon steel.”

Konstantinos has performed in recitals and collaborated with chamber ensembles and orchestras in the world’s major concert halls and famous artistic centers from Russia and Southern Europe to the United States and Canada. He has recorded several works especially written for him by contemporary composers, many of which have been broadcast on radio and television. He has won several prizes and distinctions at international piano competitions, including the prestigious Yannis Vardinoyannis Award, given for the first time to a pianist, as well as the Esther & Albert Kahn Award. Other major appearances include Wigmore Hall, Jordan Hall, the Athens Concert Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall and St. Petersburg’s Grand Concert Hall, where he performed in world premieres of works by Greek and Russian contemporary composers.

Equally at home performing Bach’s English Suites or Ligeti’s Etudes for Piano, he possesses an unusually broad repertoire, including some 70 concertos, over 300 works for solo piano, and numerous chamber works. In 2008-2009 Konstantinos finished recording Theodore Antoniou’s complete piano works, and selected sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti. Commemorating the bicentennial year of Franz Liszt’s birth, in 2011 Konstantinos embarked on an ambitious cycle of recitals of some of Liszt’s shorter and less known works. In the spring of 2011, he recorded a new and unique CD of 16 miniature Liszt masterpieces entitled “The Short Liszt”.

Konstantinos studied at the Hellenic Conservatory of Crete with Vilma Antonakaki; a year later, having already won the first prize at the Panhellenic Competition (including a Special Distinction for his own composition), he debuted as soloist in many performances showing his special musical and pianistic skills. He subsequently received a fellowship at the Hellenic Conservatory of Athens, where he studied with Costis Gaetanos, and he graduated with a First Prize Golden Medal for excellence (a superior distinction awarded for the first time to a pianist). He continued his studies in London with Martino Tirimo and Vladimir Ashkenazy and Moscow with Nikolai Petrov.

An alumnus of Boston University’s School for the Arts, Konstantinos studied with Anthony di Bonaventura and received an Artist’s Diploma in Piano Performance. At his graduation in May of 2000, he was honored with the Esther & Albert Kahn Award and was invited to join Boston University’s piano faculty where he remained until 2019. From 2006 to May 2011 Konstantinos was the “Samuel Barber Artist-in-Residence” at West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania. In addition to repeated solo appearances with Boston’s Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Konstantinos holds the prestigious Motoko and Gordon Deane Principal Chair as the Orchestra’s pianist.

Currently he is on the piano faculties of the New England Conservatory’s Pre-College and Continuing Education Division and Belmont Piano Academy. He also directs the Summer Piano Academy in Archanes, Greece. [www.kpapadakis.com]

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JUDGES FOR THE PRELIMINARY ROUND OF THE 2026 COMPETITION

LISA CLEVELAND

Dr. Lisa Cleveland is currently the Assistant Director of Education at Groton Hill Music in Groton, Massachusetts. Prior to joining the school in 2014, she served as the Chair of the Fine Arts Department at St. Anselm College, held teaching positions at UMass-Lowell and St. Paul’s School, and had maintained a private piano studio for over twenty years. Her students have received numerous awards for their performances and studies at the state and regional levels, and have pursued professional careers in music at the collegiate level.

When she was actively performing, Dr. Cleveland appeared as a soloist both nationally and internationally including tours in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Canada, and the United States. She has given the American premiere of works by Marilyn Ziffrin, Lukas Foss, and Gary Daverne, and has been featured in artist series at Northwestern University, American University, and the Old North Church in Boston. Dr. Cleveland has also been a guest lecturer and presenter at music festivals and conferences, and has adjudicated local, state, regional, and national competitions throughout the United States.

Dr. Cleveland received a Bachelor of Music degree in Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and also earned a Master of Music and Ph.D. in Music Theory from Northwestern University. She has been a member of the Music Teachers National Association and served as Chair of the MTNA Junior High School Competitions, and has also been a member of the New Hampshire Music Teachers Association where she has served as President, Treasurer, and Chair of the Granite State Auditions. Other memberships include the Massachusetts Music Teachers Association, College Music Society, Society for Music Theory, Society for American Music, New England Conference of Music Theorists, New England Piano Teachers Association, and Sigma Alpha Iota.

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JIA SHI

Pianist and educator Jia Shi currently serves on the faculty at The Rivers School Conservatory in the Greater Boston area. Born into a distinguished musical family in Guangzhou, China, she was deeply influenced by her grandfather, the renowned conductor Mingxin Shi, who laid the foundation for her early musical development. An accomplished performer, Ms. Shi has garnered numerous international accolades, including prizes at the Sendai International Piano Competition in Japan, the Kaiserburg Piano Competition in China, and the Horowitz International Piano Competition in Ukraine. In 2005, she was awarded First Prize and the award for Best Performance at the National Haiziman Piano Competition in China. Her performances have graced world-renowned stages, including Jordan Hall and Tanglewood Music Center in Boston, Steinway Hall in New York, and major concert halls across Europe and China.

Ms. Shi holds Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she studied under the legendary Professor Zhihong Guo, and a second Master’s Degree in Piano Performance from the New England Conservatory (NEC) under the tutelage of international soloist Alexander Korsantia.

A dedicated pedagogue and visionary leader, Ms. Shi was inducted into the Steinway Hall of Fame in June 2025, an honor reserved for exceptional educators with a lasting impact on the field. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the New England International Music Festival and serves as the Chairperson of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) for Massachusetts. Her students have won top prizes in prestigious international competitions and have drawn the personal admiration of the legendary pianist Martha Argerich. Ms. Shi is frequently invited to adjudicate prestigious piano competitions throughout the U.S., Europe, and China.

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