For almost four decades Thomas Quasthoff has set standards as a singer on international stages and reached and moved countless people with his art. He performed with all the leading orchestras and was at home on all the major concert stages as well as at major festivals as a lieder and concert singer. He has worked closely with conductors such as Abbado, Barenboim, Eschenbach, Levine, Haitink, Jansons, Rattle, Rilling, Thielemann and Welser-Möst.

In early 2012, he ended his unprecedented career as a singer. He remains closely connected to singing and art, among other things as a teacher and discoverer of new talents.

From 1996-2004 Thomas Quasthoff held a professorship at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold. Since then he has taught at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin and is a regular guest at master classes, including the Heidelberger Frühling Musikfestival. His passionate commitment to young singers motivated him to found the International Song Competition Das Lied in 2009, where he chairs the jury.

James Baillieu is one of the leading lied and chamber music pianists of his generation. He performs solo and chamber music recitals worldwide and collaborates with a wide range of singers and instrumentalists, including Benjamin Appl, Jamie Barton, Ian Bostridge, Allan Clayton, Annette Dasch, Lise Davidsen, the Elias and Heath Quartets, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Adam Walker and Pretty Yende.

James Baillieu is Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Coach for the Jette Parker Young Artist Program at the Royal Opera House, Course Director for the Samling Foundation and Director of the Lied Program at the Atelier Lyrique of the Verbier Festival Academy. He is an international tutor in piano accompaniment at the Royal Northern College of Music and a trustee of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. He is a sought-after lecturer for master classes worldwide and has recently been a guest artist at the Aldeburgh Festival, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, among others.

Few artists of her generation are as successful in so many areas with such a diverse repertoire as soprano Juliane Banse. Her operatic repertoire ranges from Feldmarschallin, Figaro-Gräfin, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira, Vitellia to Genoveva, Leonore, Tatjana, Arabella, Marschallin and Grete (Schreker's Der ferne Klang). Lied recitals, which have always been the passion of this versatile artist, have taken her to the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Wigmore Hall in London, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Cologne Philharmonie, Berlin's Boulez Hall and Madrid, among others. The composition Four Women from Shakespeare for soprano and chamber ensemble by Manfred Trojahn was premiered by her at the Salzburger Osterfestspiele.

Since the winter semester 2020/2021, Juliane Banse has been teaching as a professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. She also gives master classes at home and abroad and participates as a jury member in international competitions – for Das Lied in the 2023 edition for the second time.

Born in Buenos Aires, mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink is one of the most sought-after concert and lied singers of today. With a repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the 20th century, she regularly performs in major international music centers such as the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, London's Wigmore Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, and New York. She has worked with renowned conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, René Jacobs, Mariss Jansons, Sir Simon Rattle and Franz Welser-Möst.

Bernarda Fink devotes herself to young singers in master classes at the Vienna Master Classes, at the YSP in Salzburg or at the Fondation in Royaumont. She is a regular jury member at international competitions such as the Wigmore Hall Lied Competition, the Bach Competition in Leipzig, the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, and the ARD Music Competition in Munich.

John Gilhooly became director of Wigmore Hall in 2005, making him the youngest director of a major international concert hall. He opened the door to classical music for a wide audience with clever, sophisticated and risk-taking programming as well as exemplary music education formats. In 2019, he was awarded the Music Award of Heidelberger Frühling for his commitment.

Gilhooly is chairman of the Royal Philharmonic Society, one of the oldest musical societies in the world, an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music (2006), the Royal College of Music (2012), the Guildhall School (2015), and the Royal Irish Academy of Music (2016). He regularly appears as a juror at international competitions. In the competition Das Lied in the 2023 edition already for the sixth time.

Helga Machreich-Unterzaucher was born in Villach in Austria and grew up in a musical family. Her great passion for classical music finally became her profession when she started working as an artist agent for the artist agency Dr. Raab & Dr. Böhm in 1997. In 2001, Dr. Horst Böhm appointed her to the executive management of the artists' agency. In the course of her 14 years there, she was able to build up the careers of young talents through very competent and personal support and to win renowned singers such as Patricia Petibon, Bernarda Fink, Michael Schade, Florian Boesch and Thomas Quasthoff for the agency.

In May 2011 Helga Machreich-Unterzaucher founded the agency Machreich Artists Management GmbH and represents with her team about 50 artists of international format. As a juror at the Das Lied competition, of which she will be a member of the jury for the fifth time in the 2023 edition, and other national and international singing competitions, Helga Machreich-Unterzaucher discovers and promotes the young singers of tomorrow.

Richard Stokes is Professor of Song at the Royal Academy of Music. He is one of the leading experts in the field of art song and has lectured both in the UK and abroad, as well as giving extensive masterclasses on the subject. His numerous publications include A French Song Companion (with Graham Johnson), J.S. Bach - The Complete Cantatas, The Book of Lieder, and The Complete Songs of Hugo Wolf (Faber, 2021).

In addition to translating operas such as Wozzeck, Parsifal and Lulu, he has published translations of works by Kafka, Kleist and Jules Renard. He is currently working on a Carl Loewe Song Companion. He is a regular juror at international song competitions – at Das Lied 2023 for the fifth time – and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in 2012.

With an extensive repertoire ranging from the Middle Ages to the 21st century, tenor James Taylor has devoted much of his career to oratorio and concert literature.
However, his main focus is teaching, which has become his true passion. James Taylor began his teaching career as a professor of voice at the Hochschule für Musik in Augsburg, Germany. He joined the Yale University faculty in 2005 and directs the early music, art song, and oratorio programs. In 2014, he was appointed professor of vocal practice. His more than 30 years of professional experience and 21 years as a voice professor make James Taylor a highly respected instructor.

As a soloist and chamber musician, but mainly as a Lied pianist, Justus Zeyen's concerts have taken him throughout Europe, the USA and Japan. He has performed with Juliane Banse, Christiane Karg, Dorothea Röschmann, Florian Boesch and Michael Schade, among others, and has appeared in recitals at La Scala in Milan, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and at the Berlin and Vienna Festwochen. He has enjoyed a very close collaboration with Thomas Quasthoff since their first concerts together at the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival in 1994. Justus Zeyen taught at the Hanover Conservatory until the summer of 2020. Since the fall of 2020, he has held a professorship for Lied composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.