2023 Jury
Lana Henchell
Calgary native, Lana Henchell, graduated with a Doctoral degree in piano performance from McGill University under the tutelage of Richard Raymond. The University of Calgary awarded Lana undergraduate and graduate degrees in piano performance under the guidance of Marilyn Engle. She has been the recipient of several awards and grants from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Max Stern Foundation and the Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival (Rose Bowl, 1994).
In addition to performing, Lana teaches privately and at the University of Calgary. She is an avid adjudicator—offering masterclasses and clinics around the province. In recent years, she has served as a juror for the Honens ProAm Piano Competition and the Canadian Music Competitions, held across Canada.
Karl Hirzer
Karl Hirzer has been training in piano from the age of six, and went to two universities to realize his dream of becoming a conductor. But last summer he took a shortcut and applied for orchestral vacancies instead of continuing his education, being hired as the resident conductor of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. rained as a pianist, Hirzer holds bachelor's (University of Victoria) and master's (McGill University) degrees in performance, as well as an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto Diploma, obtained at the age of seventeen. His piano teachers have included Ilya Poletaev, Bruce Vogt, Michael McMahon, Walter Prossnitz and Anne Wilson Unger. He was a winner of the Johann Strauss Scholarship Competition, funding studies at the Mozarteum Sommerakademie in Salzburg, during which time he studied in the class of Robert Levin. Karl was recently awarded the 2022 recipient of the Heinz Unger Award.
Rolf Bertsch
Hailed for his passion and natural musicianship, Rolf Bertsch has quickly become one of Canada’s leading conductors. Appointed Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal by Charles Dutoit in January 2000 and named Conductor in Residence for the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 seasons. He has built an impressive reputation as a conductor, pianist, communicator, teacher and adjudicator. His career spans a broad spectrum of musical experience and styles. Accordingly, it has taken him to Europe, Asia, and throughout North and South America. Mr. Bertsch began his musical studies on the violin and went on to study piano, cello, composition, jazz, and conducting. He also holds diplomas from many prestigious institutions including McGill University, the Mozarteum (Salzburg), the Conservatoire de musique du Québec (Montréal), the Folkwang Hochschule (Essen, Germany), and Phillips Academy (Andover, Massachusetts).