We are very pleased to announce that Peter Sadlo, who has been part of the Competition as a jury member since the beginnings, now also holds the function of the Competitions Artistic Director, together with Bogdan Bacanu.

Peter Sadlo

An infant's racket on his mother's cooking pots signalled the start of Peter Sadlo's clear and extraordinary career, all based on his exceptional talent in the area of percussion.
At the age of twelve years, he began studies at the prestigious "Meistersinger-Konservatorium" in Nürnberg. Shortly after, another decisive event occurred in the life of the talented drummer; acceptance into the "Musikhochschule Würzburg" where Sadlo met the doyen of german percussion art at that time, Siegfried Fink, who would support and mentor him. In 1982, when Peter Sadlo was only 20 years old, he accepted the position of solo timpanist at the Munich Philharmonic. There,for the second time, Peter Sadlo would meet a master who would strongly influences his future development: Sergiu Celibidache, the charismatic conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. In time, the two would develop a powerful common musical understanding.

Not only his almost 20 year association with the orchestra, has influenced Peter Sadlo musically. He has worked with many of the world's most influential conductors such as L. Bernstein, S. Ozawa, L. Maazel, Z. Mehta, D. Barenboim and others. Peter Sadlo also shows great interest for chamber music with musical connection throughout around the globe. He has played on concert stages throughout the world with Martha Argerich, Markus Stockhausen, Clemens Hagen and soloists of the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic. A special musical friendship connects him to violinist Gidon Kremer, with whom he has realized many chamber music projects.
The greatest part of Peter Sadlo's artistic energies are channelled towards his activities as a soloist. The many invitations to renowned orchestras and festivals give testimony to the ever increasing impact of this exceptional artist. Constantly on the search for new sound experiences he is inspiring the creation of many new compositions . Increasingly, recording labels are discovering that it is more lucrative to press an innovative new percussion piece onto CD than a repititious edition of a classical piece. Concurrently to his career as a soloist, Peter Sadlo has always striven to pass on his know-how and experience to the next generation. Since 1983 he has taught at the Münchner Musikhochschule, and at 28 years of age he was appointed professor at the prestigious University Mozarteum Salzburg.
It is not only as a soloist that Peter Sadlo is constantly on the search for new ways to strike tones. This also became the topic of his 1997 thesis, for which he earned his doctorate in Music Science . In the area of instrumental development his advice gives many manufacturers of percussion instruments invaluable insight. Numerous publishers carry his compositions, works and research. Peter Sadlo's non musical activities reach from his own drumstick set to his own timpani development. A science by itself is Peter Sadlo's overview of the one hundred most commonly used single instruments - part of the total percussion apparatus. In addition, musicians like Peter Sadlo produce countless tone producing instruments themselves. This palette ranges from wash boards to the jaw of a donkey.