The preselection round jury consists of Kati Hämäläinen, Kari Jussila, and Olli Porthan. In the competition proper (first round and final round) the jury members are Bine Katrine Bryndorf, Kari Jussila, Jon Laukvik, Jacques van Oortmerssen, Davitt Moroney, and Olli Porthan. The chair is held by Kati Hämäläinen. The chairperson will not take part in judging. Members of the jury are not allowed to judge any of their own students. Their judging is private and final. Judging will follow a separate set of rules.

 

 
Kati Hämäläinen studied the organ and the harpsichord at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, during the years 1964-1972. She continued with her hapsichord studies in London, and with Kenneth Gilbert. She has also studied early French, Spanish and Italian organ music in several master classes. She completed her Doctor of Arts in Music studies at the Sibelius Academy with French harpsichord and organ music of the Baroque with special mention "cum laude". 

Hämäläinen has performed throughout Finland as  soloist, chamber musician, with orchestras, and as conductor. She has also performed in Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, the former Czechoslovakia, the United Kingdom, Italy, and France. She has recorded for radio and television companies in Finland and in Central Europe, and for Finnish record companies.

Hämäläinen is also a researcher in early music performange practice. As Senior Assistant she tutors doctoral students at the Sibelius-Academy in Helsinki.

 
Bine Katrine Bryndorf studied organ with Michael Radulescu and harpsichord with Gordon Murray at Hochschule für Musik, Vienna. She graduated in Organ, Church Music and harpsichord with highest marks. Further studies with Daniel Roth, Saarbrücken, and with William Porter, Boston.

In 1994 she became teaching assistant of Michael Radulescu, Vienna. In 1996 she moved to Copenhagen becoming associate professor of organ at The Royal Danish Academy of Music, from 2001 professor of organ. Since 1996 she has been organist Vartov Church, Copenhagen.

Bine Bryndorf was price winner in several competitions, among them Innsbruck, Brügge and Odense (organ) and Melk and Copenhagen (chamber music). She was artist in residence at the National Danish Radio in 1999/2000. She is President of the Jury in Odense International Organ Competition and is regularly asked for as a member of international juries.

Bine Bryndorf has given concerts and master classes in Europe and in the USA. She has recorded for Hänssler, dacapo and Classico. At the present she is working on a complete recording of the organ works of D. Buxtehude.

 

 

 Jon Laukvik received his earliest music training as organist and pianist in his native town Oslo. He went on to study organ at the University of Music (Musikhochschule) in Cologne with Prof. Michael Schneider and harpsichord with Prof. Hugo Ruf. He also studied organ privately with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris.

In 1977, Jon Laukvik was awarded both the First Prize and the Bach Prize in the International Organ Competition in Nuremberg. The same year, he was also a prize winner in the International Organ Competition sponsored by the Assembly of the German Protestant Church in Berlin.

In 1980, he was named professor at the University of Music and Interpretative Art in Stuttgart. Since 2001 he is also professor at the University of Music (Norges musikkhøgskole) in Oslo. He is also visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Jon Laukvik has toured throughout Europe, Japan, Korea, Israel and the United States. He is frequently in demand to serve on competition juries (i.e. Chartres, Dallas, Nuremberg, Odense, Alkmaar, ARD-competition Munich) and to teach seminars and masterclasses.

He is author of a highly successful organ tutor Orgelschule zur historischen Aufführungspraxis published by Carus-Verlag (English translation: Historical Performance Practice in Organ Playing). A book on the performance of Romantic organ music (Orgel und Orgelmusik in der Romantik) was published by Carus-Verlag in December 2000. He has also edited the Handel Organ Concerti Op. 7 for Carus-Verlag together with Werner Jacob.

His compositions include works for solo organ, organ with other instruments and vocal and instrumental works.

 
Jacques van Oortmerssen  began his musical studies at the Rotterdam Conservatoire, studying the organ with André Verwoerd. He earned the
distinction ‘cum laude’ for his final examination and was given a special prize for improvisation.
Between 1974 and 1976 he studied with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris, and was awarded the Prix d´Excellence in 1976. In 1977 he received his degree as a piano soloist, and in the same year he was awarded first prize at the Dutch National Improvisation Competition.

Since 1979 he has been Professor of Organ at the Sweelinck Conservatoire in Amsterdam, where his organ class attracts students from many different countries. In 1982 he succeeded Gustav Leonhardt as ‘Organiste Titulaire’ of the Waalse Kerk in Amsterdam.
In addition to being a visiting professor at the University of Göteborg, the Conservatoire of Lyon and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, he has visited conservatories and universities worldwide as a guest teacher and recitalist. For the academic year 1993/94 he became Betts Fellow in Organ Studies at Oxford University.

As a recitalist he has appeared in many international festivals like the BBC proms. His interpretations of Bach and early music have brought him widespread fame. He is also active as a comproser and organ consultant.The complete organ works of Brahms and C.P.E. Bach (BIS) feature among his many recordings for various international recording and broadcast companies. In 1994 Jacques van Oortmerssen started recording the complete organ works of J.S. Bach on the most important historical organs in Europe (Challenge Records).

 
Davitt Moroney was born in England in 1950. He studied organ and harpsichord with Susi Jeans, Kenneth Gilbert and Gustav Leonhardt. He has made about 50 CDs, especially of music by members of the Couperin dynasty and J. S. Bach.Many of these recordings feature historic 17th- and 18th-century organs and harpsichords. They include a recitalplayed on the oldest organ surviving in France (built by Robert Dallam, 1653) and the complete harpsichord and organ music of Louis Couperin (seven CDs, using four old instruments). He has also recorded the entire contents of Marc Roger Normand Couperin's harpsichord manuscript, William Byrd's complete keyboard works (seven CDs, with six instruments), and J. S. Bach's The Well tempered Clavier, French Suites, Musical Offering, complete sonatas for flute and harpsichord, and for violin and harpsichord, as well as The Art of Fugue (a work he has recorded twice). His recordings have been awarded the "Grand Prix du Disque" (1996), the "Preis der Deutschen Schallplatenkritik" (2000),

and three "Gramophone Awards" (1986, 1991, 2000). In 1987 he was named Chevalier dans l'Ordre du mérite culturel by Prince Rainier of Monaco and, in 2000, Officier des arts et des lettres by the French government.In 2001, he was appointed Professor of Music and University Organist at the University of California, Berkeley. Among his many scholarly publications, his monograph "Bach, An Extraordinary Life" was published in 2000. It has since been translated into French, Portuguese,

Italian, and Polish. Spanish, German, and Japanese translations are in progress. He is currently writing a book on Louis Couperin.

 
Kari Jussila studied organ at the Sibelius Academy under Enzio Forsblom. In 1966 Jussila received his Organ Diploma and also graduated as a church musician. He has later enhanced his studies in several masterclasses in Finland and abroad and studied privately in Geneva under Guy Bovet and in Paris under Marie-Claire Alain.

After his Debut of 1966 in Helsinki, he has given recitals regularly in Finland and in the other Nordic Countries as well as in several European countries, Russia and U.S.A. He has premiered over 40 organ and chamber music compositions and made several first and other recordings for the Finnish Radio as well as making many organ and chamber music records. He received first prize in the 1973 Helsinki national organ competition. 

Kari Jussila has taught organ at the Sibelius Academy since 1966. In 1983 he received a lectorate and since the autumn of 1998 he has been the acting Professor of Organ music. Since 1972 he has also taught organ at the post graduate training courses for church musicians in Kuopio and Järvenpää and since 1980 at the Parainen Organ festival.

 
Olli Porthan studied organ at the Sibelius Academy under Enzio Forsblom and under Jacques van Oortmerssen at the Sweelinck Conservatoire in Amsterdam. After receiving his diploma, he gave his debut recital at the Finlandia-hall in 1983. He received first prize in the 1980 Lahti organ competition. Porthan has given concerts in Finland and in the other Nordic Countries as well as in several European countries. He has made several radio recordings and performed on television, in addition to recording baroque organ works and chamber music.

Porthan has taught organ music at the Sibelius Academy since 1980 and as professor since 1988. He has acted as chairman for the Organum Society during 1986-1990. Porthan´s expertise has been widely used in various organ building projects (also the Kotka organ). Since 1992 Porthan has been artistic leader of the ”Janakkalan barokkikesä” music festival. He acted as leader of the Sibelius Academy Church Music Department in 1997- 2002.