I.
The Competition Jury is comprised of a distinguished international panel of nine pianists who are appointed by Organiser of the First Ljubljana Festival International Piano Competition (hereinafter called Competition).
II.
The Competition Jury acts based on the documents Jury: Rules of the Competition and General Competition Rules.
III.
The general task of the Competition Jury is to evaluate the musicality, technical perfection, and interpretative conviction of each competitor, advance the best to next rounds of Competition and award prizes and special diplomas to the best competitors after Round 3.
IV.
Each Juror is obliged to listen to and evaluate all competitors in each stage of Competition and take part in all Competition Jury meetings.
V.
The Competition Jury can interrupt the competitors during any stage of their performance.
VI.
The President of the Competition Jury, Prof. Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak, will preside over the work of the Jurors and represent them.
VII.
The Competition Jury will listen to each competitor and at the end of Round 1 and Round 2 vote which competitor should advance to the following rounds. Next to the name of each competitor, a Juror will choose ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ to evaluate whether they should be accepted to Round 2 and Round 3 of Competition. The Jurors cannot evaluate their students (the definition of which is written under Article XII). They should mark the letter S next to the names of any of their students. After the Jurors evaluate all the competitors in a particular round, the Organiser will present the results to the Competition Jury. The competitors with the highest percentage of YES votes will advance to the following rounds automatically. Those competitors with a lower percentage of YES votes who still have a chance of advancing to the following rounds will be evaluated by the Competition Jury again, with ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ voting, in order to receive just the required number of competitors advancing to the following rounds. In the case that a decision cannot be reached in such a way, the Competition Jury is allowed to hold additional deliberations.
VIII.
After the Jurors finish the evaluation, the names of successful candidates advancing to the following rounds will publicly be presented on Competition website in alphabetical order.
IX.
The Competition Jury may award the following special diplomas:
- Best performance of a Baroque work: 500 EUR
- Best performance of a Classical Sonata: 500 EUR
- Best performance of a Romantic work: 500 EUR
- Best performance of a 20th Century work: 500 EUR
- Best performance of a 21st Century work: 500 EUR
- Best performance of a work by a Slovenian composer: 500 EUR
- The youngest finalist in the Competition: 500 EUR
- The highest ranked pianist representing Slovenia: 500 EUR
A special diploma will be awarded to the competitor who receives the greatest number of votes. However, more than half (namely 5) of the Jurors present need to vote in competitor’s favour for one to be declared the winner of a particular prize. Just like in the previous rounds, the Jurors will not be allowed to evaluate their students (the definition of which is written under Article XII). If the first vote fails to determine the winner, some additional deliberations between Jurors are possible followed by a potential second round of voting with the competitors with the fewest number of votes eliminated from voting. In the second round of voting, a Juror can abstain from voting. The competitors receiving the special diplomas will be revealed at the Awards Ceremony on March 4, 2023.
X.
In Round 3, the Competition Jury will evaluate the final 6 competitors using the numerical scale from 1 to 6, with 1 being the lowest and 6 the highest score. Just like in the previous rounds, the Jurors will not be allowed to evaluate their students. Each numerical score can be given to one competitor only. The arithmetic mean of a competitor’s score will be calculated to two decimal places by dividing the total sum of awarded points by the number of the Jurors who did the evaluation (appropriately lower in the case of the students). After receiving the evaluations and making the calculations, Organiser will present the final standings based on the averages of the competitor’s scores to the Competition Jury. Acting on this basis, the Competition Jury, after deliberations if needed, will name the prize winners.
XI.
The members of the Competition Jury reserve the right:
- not to award all prizes and special diplomas,
- to divide prizes between two or more competitors.
XII.
The Competition Jury is obliged to state whether among the competitors are pianists who are currently their students* or have been their regular students (private lessons or in Music Schools) at any point in time after June 2021. The Jurors must also state whether they have a close personal relation** with any of the applicants.
* The term student does not apply in a case of short, sporadic collaboration between a competitor and a Juror during a masterclass or similar activity.
** Here a personal relation means that a member of the Competition Jury and a competitor share a dwelling or are related (up to the fourth degree of kinship) or are spouses or are cohabiting.
XIII.
The Competition Jury will in principle select no more than 12 competitors to participate in Round 2 of Competition, and no more than 6 competitors to Round 3 of Competition.
XIV.
The Competition Jury should not publicly state their opinions about any of the competitors while Competition is in progress and the main prizes and special diplomas are awarded at the Awards Ceremony on March 4, 2023.
XV.
The Competition Jury’s decisions are final, and they are not subject to appeal.
XVI.
Competitors are not permitted to have contact with any Competition Jury member during their participation in Competition. Failure to observe this rule may lead to disqualification of the competitor.
XVII.
In exceptional circumstances (such as violations of the regulations mentioned in the documents Jury: Rules of the Competition and General Competition Rules) Organiser may sanction and dismiss a Competition Jury member.
XVIII.
All issues which cannot be solved based on the document Jury: Rules of the Competition will be subject to discussion by the members of the Competition Jury. The solutions thus accepted will be subject to the approval of Organiser.
