Winners will be announced during a ceremony in Los Angeles on February 12th.

Stefano Montanari made his debut as a Baroque violinist and Concert Master of Accademia Bizantina Orchestra in Ravenna, with which he toured throughout the world. He collaborates with several leading exponents of early music, especially with Cristhophe Rousset, with the "Kammerorchester Basel" with the Concert Köln as a concertmaster and conductor. Later on his repertoire opened to the seventeenth and eighteenth century Italian Operas with numerous invitations to conduct in theaters such as Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo (and in tour to Japan), the Teatro Coccia in Novara, the Teatro Sociale in Mantua, La Fenice in Venice, and the Opéra de Lyon. Highlights of his conducting career include: regular collaborations with the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo (Don Gregorio; L’Elisir d'Amore; Don Pasquale and Piccinni’s La Cecchina Ossia la Buona Figliuola) and the Opéra de Lyon (Don Giovanni, Così Fan Tutte and Le Nozze di Figaro); Don Pasquale in Novara and Mantova; L’Elisir d’Amore in Lucca; a series of concerts in Canada with the ARION ensemble; Semiramide Riconosciuta at the Baroque Festival in Beaune and at the Via Stellae Festival in Santiago de Compostela; and Don Giovanni at the Opera-Atelier in Toronto. Stefano Montanari has recently started a research project that aims at producing the critical edition of operas of the 19th Century, particularly Donizetti, in collaboration with scholars of the Hochschule der Künste Bern. He is also currently editing a Baroque Violin method for Carisch.

His future plans include: Carmen and a series of symphonic and baroque concerts in Lyon; Mozart's Così Fan Tutte and Rossini’s L’Inganno Felice at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. He will also conduct Le Quattro Stagioni with Accademia Bizantina at the Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence.