2025 SPG Festival Adjudicators:
- Dr. Donna Symons
- Dr. Bogdan Dulu
Dr. Donna Symons:
Adjudicator for the Elementary, Junior & Intermediate Divisions
Donna Symons began her formal piano studies with Glen Geary in Vancouver and had further training with pianists Lee Kum-Sing, Enrica Cavallo-Gulli, Zadel Skolovsky, Michel Block, and Leonard Hokanson. She completed her Doctor of Musical Arts studies at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, where she also completed her Master of Music in piano performance. Her Bachelor of Music is from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She has recorded for CBC in Canada and PBS Television and NPR in the United States. As a chamber music pianist her extensive collaborations have included recitals with the legendary violinist Joseph Gingold, and the Audubon and Purcell String Quartets. Her participation in numerous Master Classes includes performances for acclaimed artists such as Guido Agosti, Gyorgy Sebok, Pinchas Zukerman, Isaac Stern and Ruth Laredo. Donna Symons has been active performing and teaching at summer music festivals in western Canada and the mid-west and eastern United States. She has concertized in Melbourne Australia, Western Canada, BC., and Alberta and in Maryland, New York, Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana in the United States.
Her adjudicating has encompassed competitions and festivals throughout Canada and the United States, including the Bartok International Piano Competition. As a festival and competition adjudicator and examiner she continues to assess students throughout North America.
She has been an associate instructor at the Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington, and a faculty member of the Vancouver Academy of Music, a member of the examining body of the USA Piano Guild and of the College of Examiners of The Royal Conservatory of Music. She currently maintains a studio in North Vancouver with her students achieving consistently high results in festivals, competitions and exams, national honours, and admission to prestigious music schools. She remains active as a consultant teacher, adjudicator, clinician, and examiner.
Dr. Bogdan Dulu:
Adjudicator for the Senior Division
Gold Winner of the 2011 Seattle International Piano Competition, Bogdan Dulu serves as a Jemini Foundation Piano Chair in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and co-chairs the Keyboard Department at the VSO’s own School of Music.
He has performed on four continents, and has worked with many prominent conductors and international soloists in diverse repertoire spanning over four centuries. In addition to his performing activities, he is a seasoned adjudicator, mentor, and lecturer. His students have received many accolades in competitions and concerto auditions, as well as inclusions in CBC’s prestigious “30 Under 30” list.
He has taught sessionally at UBC, and he currently serves on the college faculty at the Vancouver Academy of Music. He holds graduate degrees in piano performance from Mannes School of Music in NYC (Masters, class of Irina Morozova) and UBC (Doctorate, class of Jane Coop), with an undergraduate in piano and collaborative studies from his native Romania. His doctoral dissertation is the first academic writing focused on Marc-André Hamelin’s Piano Études, and was written with the composer’s direct supervision.
Dulu is a proud naturalized Canadian citizen. An amateur competitive cyclist, he has a rather costly affinity for carbon road bikes. He does not like viola jokes.