Thomas Höft - Head Jury
ĀRT HOUSE 17 - Founder

Thomas Höft is an author, dramaturg and director, active across a wide range of artistic fields. Having studied art history, literature, musicology and psycholinguistics at the University of Hamburg, he has made a name for himself particularly through his opera librettos and his collaborations with institutions such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Komische Oper Berlin and the Bregenz Festival. He has held various managerial and dramaturgical roles, notably at the Styriarte Festival in Graz, ZAMUS in Cologne and the Cologne Early Music Festival. He is currently artistic director of the Shalom-Musik.Koeln festival and continues to work internationally at the intersection of creation, programming and artistic research.

Sabrina Stender Solis is a specialist in branding and digital marketing within the music sector. With nearly 20 years’ experience in music, the arts and communications, she supports orchestras, artists and institutions with their strategic development. A graduate in Organisational Communication from Copenhagen Business School, she developed the Artist Identity model. Since 2020, she has been running Solis Consulting and working with numerous cultural organisations. She has also been president of JM Denmark since 2022.

Insight-reading enlightenment podcast - Director

Darina Ablogina is a flutist. She studied at the Moscow State Conservatory and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Based in Switzerland, she pursues a career as a freelance musician, working as a performer, teacher, organist and curator of musical projects. She is also the creator of the podcast (in)sight-reading, dedicated to sight-reading in early music, and is interested in the links between performance, creativity and cognitive processes.

Anna Danilevskaia - Head Jury
Sollazzo Ensemble - Director // MA Festival - Artistic Director

A violinist and vihuela de arco player, Anna specialises in the repertoires of the 14th to 16th centuries. She grew up in Metz, France, in a family of musicians and has been playing medieval music since childhood. Since 2014, she has led the Ensemble Sollazzo, a group recognised as one of the leading voices in the field of medieval and Renaissance music. Since January 2026, she has been the artistic director of the MA Festival, which has been held in Bruges every summer for the past sixty years.
 

Early Music Seattle - Artistic Director

August Denhard is a lutenist, theorboist and baroque guitarist, specialising in the early music repertoire. He performs regularly with numerous baroque ensembles and as an accompanist for 16th- and 17th-century vocal music. He also pursues an international career as a soloist and chamber musician. In addition, he is the director of Early Music Seattle, one of the leading organisations dedicated to early music in the United States.

Ars Hispana - President and Co-founder

As a musicologist and philosopher, he holds degrees in musicology and philosophy from the Universities of La Rioja and Deusto, and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Oviedo. He also undertook postgraduate studies at the Complutense University of Madrid and completed a Master’s degree in Hispanic music at the University of Salamanca. A specialist in the Spanish repertoire from the 17th to the 19th centuries, he edits and transcribes numerous works and collaborates with several early music ensembles. He is president and co-founder of the Ars Hispana association and director of the Chair of Philosophy of Music at the Gustavo Bueno Foundation.

Cherry Fricker - Head Jury
National Centre of Early Music - Executive Director

Cherry Fricker is Executive Director of the National Centre of Early Music in York, where she has held a number of key roles since 2009, notably in finance and operations. A music graduate of the University of Edinburgh, she began her career in auditing before moving into the cultural sector. She is committed to the strategic development of music organisations and to supporting artists.

On the Move - General Secretary

Marie Le Sourd has been Secretary General of On the Move since 2012, an international network dedicated to cultural mobility. With over 25 years’ experience in international cultural cooperation, she works to improve mobility conditions for artists and cultural professionals. She previously directed the French Cultural Centre in Yogyakarta and worked at the Asia-Europe Foundation in Singapore. She is now committed to developing more equitable and sustainable cultural policies at the international level.

Donika Rudi Berishaj is a composer specialising in acousmatic and electroacoustic music. Her work ranges from composing for film, dance and theatre to multimedia installations and performances. Since 2010, she has been artistic director of the ReMusica Festival in Pristina, where she shapes the programme and artistic vision. Her works are performed internationally and she is a member of several networks dedicated to electroacoustic music.