The Jury is composed by international acclaimed artists as orchestra conductors, opera singers, composers.

• Federico Bardazzi Artistic Director
• Carla Zanin Founder and CEO 

The Jury of the 6th edition of Florence International Choir Festival will be composed by the following members:
Jürgen Partaj - President of the Jury
Ester Maria Castriota
Luis Augusto Da Fonseca
Gianluca Floris
Joan Yakkey

Jürgen Partaj was born in Vienna into a family of music enthusiasts and so came into early contact with the Austrian choral and music scene. He studied violin with Eva Bru and attended master classes with Christian Altenburger and Ernst Kovacic. Initially he was active purely in the field of classical music in solo, chamber music and orchestral projects but his concert activity gradually shifted towards crossover. His musical career is complemented by performances with Oscar winner Glen Hansard, concerts as a guest musician in various international performing groups, several CD productions, broadcasts on international TV and radio stations as well as the musical direction at festivals and theatre productions, among others in the framework of the Wiener Festwochen. Besides his musical activities Jürgen Partaj graduated in law with a focus on arts law and founded a music agency in 2000 that specialized in international orchestral and choral tour management. Jürgen Partaj had the opportunity to work with outstanding musicians such as Elina Garanca, Annette Dasch, Julian Rachlin, Joe Zawinul, Rebekka Bakken, Al Jarreau, Randy Newman, Lalo Schifrin and with choral conductors such as Erwin Ortner, Robert Page and Simon Carrington. Jürgen Partaj was founder and director of the contemporary music festival at Schloss Ebelsberg before he founded the "Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival" in 2007 together with the Association Via Musica – a festival for youth choirs and youth orchestras from all over the world. As intendant and artistic director till 2017, he annually created over 200 music events in Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria. With the establishment and the artistic direction of the youth choir "Neue Wiener Stimmen" in 2010 Jürgen Partaj was able to make a lasting impression in his hometown. Despite its short existence the Neue Wiener Stimmen can already look back on tours in Austria and abroad, CD and DVD recordings, performances in the most important concert venues in Vienna, at the opening of the Life Ball and at the Wiener Volkstheater. Performances of "Fledermaus" at the EXPO 2015 in Milan, productions at the Wiener Schauspielhaus and the Theater an der Wien and acclaimed projects with the RSO Vienna, the Max Steiner Orchestra, the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra round off the diverse activities of the choir. Neue Wiener Stimmen was elected as "Choir of the Year 2016" by the Chorforum Wien. Jürgen Partaj was nominated for cultural manager of the year in the German-speaking countries in 2013. He is working with the Austrian Composers Society, is much sought after as a jury member of international music competitions and is teaching at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Ester Maria Castriota, soprano
She graduated in singing and in vocal chamber music at the "L.Cherubini "of Florence.
She perfectioned with Daniel Ferro, Anastasia Tomaszeswka in the opera repertoire, with Jill
Feldman in the Baroque repertoire, with Dalton Baldwin, Liliana Poli, Julia Hamari, in the liederistic and contemporary repertoire.
As a soloist and in chamber formations, she is a guest of concert seasons and shows in Italy and abroad(Friends of Music of Modena, Florence, Ravenna-Festival, G.A.M.O. of Florence, IUC of Rome,Sinfonia en Perigord etc.). She collaborates with various ensembles: Arte-Musica (Gesualdo da Venosa, IV bookof madrigals), Artemisia Chapel (C. Margherita Cozzolani, Vespri), ASeivoci (C. Monteverdi, Selvamoral and spiritual).
She plays roles in Orpheus of Monteverdi (Ravenna, Alighieri Theatre), Dido and Aeneas of Purcell
(Florence, Palazzo Vecchio), Erminia sul Giordano by Michelangelo Rossi (Pistoia), in the Folksongs of Luciano Berio in scenic form (Parma Teatro Studio), in La Bohème (Rome).
She gets the III prize in the Valentino Bucchi contest "Il canto nel '900" (Rome 1996).
She recorded for Dynamic, Tactus, Edipan, Esperia labels.
She is Professor of Singing at the "L. Cherubini "of Florence.

Luis Fonseca was born in Recife, Brazil and kept his interest in composing since his first musical studies, doing it besides his Double Bass career as self-taught and having private lessons as well, when he finally decided to study it as he moved to Madrid, by Prof. Sergio Luque and Prof. Alberto Bernal in the CSKG center, where he could also assist to open lessons from Alberto Posadas, Mesías Maiguashca, Enrique Tomás, José Manuel Berengher and Michael Beil. These studies were in the electronic field, but after all, learning computer assisted composition as well as algorithmic composition brought him to another way of composing, but not using electronics as a general condition in his works. He finds himself developing new ways to generate music algorithmically and mix it with traditional structures and aesthetics as well. He is nowadays studying a Doctor degree in the algorithmic composition field in the "Universidad Autónoma de Madrid" by José Luis Carles and Sergio Luque. His music has been played in Spain, Brazil, Germany, Australia, United States, Venezuela, Lithuania, Austria, Finland, Mexico, Switzerland and Italy. Luis Fonseca has a "Honorable Mention" on the "David Walter International Composition Competition 2016" promoted by the ISB (International Society of Bassists/ USA) for his piece "Mandelbrot Sonata" for Double Bass and Piano and his piece "homeTown" for Double Bass, video & electronics was finalist in the MA/IN Composition Competition and presented in the MA/IN Festival in Matera - Italy in December 2016. He has also been awarded a first prize in the 4th International Competition of Choral Composition "Ennio Morricone" 2017 in Florence - Italy for his piece "Hommage a Rothko" for Choir a Capella.

Nel 1988 inizia gli studi a Cagliari in privato sotto la guida della maestra Alessandra Atzori. Nel 1991, dopo aver vinto la selezione italiana, europea e mondiale del Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition (Pesaro, Modena e Philadeplphia Pa USA), inizia la sua carriera come tenore solista nella inaugurazione della stagione del Teatro Regio di Parma nel 1991, carriera ancora in corso. Nel settembre del 2018 canterà nella produzione di Manon Lescaut del teatro dell'Opera di Roma presso il teatro Bunka Kaikan a Tokyo. 
Specializzato in repertorio tedesco e rossiniano con il maestro Gustav Kuhn, fondatore assieme a lui della accademia di Montegridolfo (PU) e della Accademia SuntoryHall (Tokyo).
Lorin Maazel, Zubin Metha, Daniel Oren, Iuri Temirkanov, Daniele Gatti, Renato Palumbo, Nicola Luisotti, Michele Mariotti, Jonathan Webb, Bruno Bartoletti, sono alcuni dei direttori d'orchestra con i quali ha avuto una collaborazione continuativa.
Gabriele Lavia, Pierluigi Pizzi, Luca Ronconi, Daniele Abbado, Davide Livermore, sono alcuni dei registi con i quali ha avuto collaborazioni di particolare prestigio.
Docente in workshop e masterclass presso svariate università e conservatori della Cina, è stato docente nella Showa University of Music di Kawasaki (Tokyo), del Teatro Stabile di Torino e di altre organizzazioni di alta formazione musicale

In 1988 he began his studies in Cagliari privately under the guidance of the teacher Alessandra Atzori. In 1991, after winning the Italian, European and world selection of the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition (Pesaro, Modena and Philadeplphia Pa USA), he began his career as a solo tenor at the inauguration of the season of the Teatro Regio in Parma in 1991, a career still in progress. In September 2018 he will sing in the Manon Lescaut production of the Theater of Opera of Rome at the Bunka Kaikan theater in Tokyo.

Specialized in German and Rossini repertoire with maestro Gustav Kuhn, founder with him of the academy of Montegridolfo (PU) and of the SuntoryHall Academy (Tokyo).
Lorin Maazel, Zubin Metha, Daniel Oren, Iuri Temirkanov, Daniele Gatti, Renato Palumbo, Nicola Luisotti, Michele Mariotti, Jonathan Webb, Bruno Bartoletti, are some of the conductors with whom he has had an ongoing collaboration.
Gabriele Lavia, Pierluigi Pizzi, Luca Ronconi, Daniele Abbado and Davide Livermore are some of the directors with whom he has had particularly prestigious collaborations.
Lecturer in workshops and master classes at various universities and conservatories in China, he was a lecturer at the Showa University of Music in Kawasaki (Tokyo), at the Teatro Stabile di Torino and other high-level musical education organizations.

Joan Yakkey, a native of New York City, is Founder and Director of choral groups for children and youth at the School of Music in Fiesole since 1978. Joan Yakkey holds a degree in Music Composition from two US Universities and has followed Choir Conducting courses at Fontainbleau, France with Nadia Boulanger, in Fiesole with Maestro Robev and in Florence, where she graduated in Music and Choral Direction with Maestro Paolo Fragapane. He also holds a piano diploma from the "L.Cherubini" Conservatory where he taught for 37 years and where he also led the choral singing course for children for 7 years. M ° Yakkey is a composer of choral pieces, chamber music, opera, oratorio, instrumental pieces and solfeggio books for children: The Sign and the Sound and the Language of Music. His Oratory for young people, La Cometa, was presented in 2000 at Borgunto and in the Duomo of Florence. His work The Toy Factory was created in 2011 at the Teatro Puccini with the complexes of the School of Music of Fiesole, Aldo Tarabella director. The work was also presented in English in Carefree, Arizona. He directed three female vocal ensembles specializing in cappella music with which he recorded 5 CDs. From 1980 - 2015 he collaborated with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in the preparation of the choir of white voices, soloists and madrigal groups for shows and recordings. He collaborates with other ensembles (Orchestra della Toscana - Spira Mirabilis Orchestra) in recent productions: L'Isola dei Pappagalli (Rota), Aldo Tarabella director & Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn). Still she is a lecturer and coordinator of the Basic Music department at the Fiesole Music School where she coordinates the teaching and activities of youth choirs and preparatory courses. The writer Dott.ssa Ann Gaudino has just concluded a biography on her life and didactic activities of the last forty years in Italy.