Our Jurors
Rubén Colón Tarrats
Rubén Colón Tarrats
Rubén Colón Tarrats is a Puerto Rican composer, clarinet player and band director from Ponce, Puerto Rico. He also conducted the Banda Municipal de Ponce for ten years. He received his music training at Escuela Libre de Música de Ponce, Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, and Temple University College of Music, and was a music professor at Ponce High School, Instituto de Musica Juan Morel Campos, and Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Puerto Rico.
During a music career that spanned half a century, he directed over a dozen choirs, composed over 200 works of music, founded music institutes and music festivals, directed numerous orchestras, presented concerts spanning the Western Hemisphere, and was president of the Puerto Rican Association of Choir Directors. Upon his retirement from active music life, he was honored by many artists, educators, and politicians, and was also honored by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña and the Ponce Municipal Government.
Roberta Vacca
Roberta Vacca
Roberta Vacca is “one of the most solidly trained, most original and unpredictable composers of her generation” (Lorenzo Tozzi, Rivista Musica 360, October 2024). She is a multifaceted artist, a pianist and composer, lecturer at the “A. Casella” Conservatory, L’Aquila, Italy, where she also completed her musical studies, as well as at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Accademia Chigiana with Azio Corghi.
Winner of numerous national and international awards and prizes, resident composer at Mac Dowell Colony (U.S.A.), Bogliasco Foundation for Letters and the Arts and “Le Ville Matte” Artist Residency, she has several works to her credit (published by Ars Publica, Twilight, MEP, Sconfinarte, RAI Com, Tactus), performed in Italy and abroad, including 6 CDs dedicated exclusively to her own work and several record collections for various labels. She collaborates with artists of different backgrounds to create special projects.
A playful and idealistic component, combined with her passion for theatre, which permeate her instrumental production, have led her to be open to collaborating on numerous diverse projects.
Lina Tonia
Lina Tonia
Lina Tonia is a young award-winning composer born in Greece, in 1985. Her work list includes more than 140 compositions for orchestra, ensembles, operas, chamber music and music for theatre that performed in Paris, Vienna, London, New York, Boston, Appleton, Delaware, Moscow, Weimar, Berlin, Edinburgh, Zagreb, Takefu, Sofia, Plovdiv, Tirana, Athens and Thessaloniki.
She has been awarded prizes in several national and international composition competitions for her works. Among others, she received the 1st prize at the 4th Jungerson International Composition Competition in Moscow (2007), the 3rd prize to the 2nd International “Ton de Leeuw” Composition Competition (2008), the Baerenreiter Award at the 12th International Via Nova Composition Competition in Weimar (2010), the 2nd prize to the 12th International “Via Nova” Composition Competition (2010), the title of “New Young Artist of the Year” from the Union of Greek Critics for Music and Theatre in Athens (2010), the 3rd prize to the 1st International “Alexander Myaskovsky” Composition Competition in Moscow (2012), the 3rd prize to the 1st International Composition Contest, Violas 2014 in Paris (2014), the 1st prize to the XII International Composition Competition FRANCISCO ESCUDERO (2019), the 2nd prize to GEDOK International Composition Competition 2020 organized for the 150th anniversary of Ida Dehmel in Munich (2020), the 3rd prize to the Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award at the University of Illinois Urbana – Champaign (2023).
She awarded with the title “Composer of the Year 2020” from the Federation of American Musicians, Singers and Performing Artists (FAMSPA) at the New York World Music Awards 2020.
She is teaching Composition in Macedonia University, Department of Music Art and Science, in Thessaloniki from September of 2016.