François Dumont is a French classical pianist.
Dumont is notable for winning fifth prize in the sixteenth International Chopin Piano Competition. He has also won First Prize in the Jean Françaix International Competition in 2007 and First Prize in the Steinway International Piano Competition in 2002, and is also a laureate of the Perlemuter, Clara Haskil, Hamamatsu and Piano Campus piano competitions. He obtained the Grand Piano Prize of Spedidam in 2005 and the "Declic" Prize from the French Government.

The Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1976 by a small group of musicians who felt that there was a need in Hong Kong for a chamber-sized orchestra aiming at a high standard of music making. The Orchestra consists of around 30 professional and non-professional musicians and gives around ten concerts in Hong Kong each year. Prof. Robert Lord, a professor of linguistics at University of Hong Kong, was the first music director and official founder of the orchestra. The orchestra has been closely associated with HKU right from the start.
In the early years the HKCO did more work with choirs, particularly the Bach Choir. HKCO conductors over the years have included Robert Lord, Peter Stephenson, Nicholas Routley, Malcolm Butler, KK Chiu and Ken Lam.

Yaron Kohlberg is an Israeli pianist. He won prestigious international prizes and performs regularly on major stages worldwide.
He is the son of the Islamicist professor Etan Kohlberg and the violinist Bat-Sheva Savaldi-Kohlberg, and has an older brother, Ophir.
Kohlberg started playing the piano in 1990. He studied with Luisa Yoffe, Eitan Globerson and Arie Vardi, and in 2009 obtained a master's degree with distinction from the Buchmann-Mehta school of music of Tel Aviv University.
Between 2001 and 2004 he served in the army in the status of Outstanding Musician.
Kohlberg is among today's top Israeli pianists. He played in major halls in forty countries over five continents and has won over ten international prizes. His performances won critical acclaim, and he was described by international media as "the pianist with the golden hands".

Jeffrey Swann is a classical pianist.
Swann was born in Arizona but moved to Dallas, Texas, as a young child. He began piano studies at the age of four. While attending St. Mark's School of Texas, he studied for seven years with Alexander Uninsky at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School under Beveridge Webster and Joseph Bloch. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree under Adele Marcus, graduating with highest honors. During this time, he won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1974 and opened the 1975-76 YCA Series at Carnegie Hall with his New York debut.
He won first prize in the Dino Ciani Competition sponsored by La Scala in Milan, second prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels, and top honors in the Warsaw Chopin, Van Cliburn, Vianna da Motta and Montreal Competitions.

Vera Gornostayeva was a Russian pianist and pedagogue.
An Emeritus Artist of the Russian Federation at the time of her death, Gornostayeva was a graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where her teacher was Heinrich Neuhaus.
In addition to her performing career, Gornostaeva was a professor at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. She gave masterclasses in Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States. Her book Two Hours After the Concert was translated and published there. Other educational activities included leading annual seminars for Russian music teachers, giving lectures on radio and TV on classical music and the performing arts, and publishing articles and books. She was a jury member and often chairman of the jury at many prestigious international music competitions, and was also the President of the Moscow Association of Musicians.