received his first piano lessons from his father at the age of 4 years. He studied with Naoyuki Taneda at the University of Music in Karlsruhe, and with Rosina Lhevinne and Martin Canin at the Juilliard School in New York. He won first prize at both the International Busoni Competition in Bolzano in 1974 and in 1976 at the International Liszt-Bartók Competition in Budapest. Concert engagements have taken him throughout Europe, the USA, Korea and Japan. Robert Benz has recorded the complete cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas onto CD and has been the Trio Bamberg's pianist since 1996. He has also held the chair of Professor for Piano at the University of Music in Mannheim since 1990. Since 2005 he is artistic director of the Ettlingen competition.

was born in Edinburgh and studied piano and cello at the Royal Academy of Music in London. During his studies he won numerous prizes at British and International competitions. He currently is Head of the Keyboard Department at the Royal Academy of Music in London. His pupils have achieved many prizes at international competitions such as Van Cliburn, Moscow-Tchaikovsky, New York Young Concert Artists, Leeds, Munich, Hamamatsu, etc. Christopher Elton is an active jury member in international competitions, at music festivals and television events, and has given concerts in recent years in Europe, USA, Australia and Vietnam. He was appointed a Professor of the University of London in 2003.

holds BM, MM, DMA degree from the Juilliard School where he studied with Martin Canin. He won the first prize at the Robert Casadesus International Piano Competition (now the Cleveland Competition) and has given master classes and performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He received a decoration for 'the Artist of the Year' by the Ministry of Culture in Korea. His recent discography includes the Piano Concertos (KV 488 and KV 453) by Mozart in which he conducted the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra from the keyboard. Currently, he is a professor at the Korean National University of Arts and has been a jury member for the most prestigious international competitions. His student, Sunwook Kim won the first prize in Ettlingen (2004), Clara Haskil (2005) and Leeds (2006).

studied with Nicolai Dirdal and Hans Leygraf and won numerous prizes at international competitions. From 1975 to 1981 and again since 1994 he is Professor of Piano at the University of Music of Hannover, Germany. His international career has included solo recitals in Europe, Japan, USA and Mexico. Concerto appearances include the London Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, and the Oslo and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestras in Norway. His recording of the Grieg Concerto was chosen by the BBC Saturday Review as the best version of this much-recorded concerto. He recently released the recording of all Grieg's piano music on Naxos.