A concept to ensure highest measures for fairness and objectivity in judging of the musical performance has been developed by the organization of the competition:

The first competition round will be public, the jury will judge behind a non-transparent screen, as it is common in all orchestral auditions world-wide, to insure that they solely judge musical performance. Participants will pick their performance order numbers on the 10th of August at the opening ceremony. The competition organisation will protocol the order of the competitors – this information will be withheld from the jury to ensure anonymity of the candidates. Accordingly, communication between participants and a member of the jury will be deemed as a reason for immediate  disqualification of the participant and release of the relevant jury member from duty. The identities of the jury members will be publicly announced only after full completion of first round. The jury of the first round will consist of instrumentalists, musicologists, music critics etc. None of the jury members teach at the CIMA Masterclasses and are obliged to keep their engagement confidential until the completion of the first round. The first round will be held parallel with different jury groups at the Fanny Mendelssohn as well as at the Clara Schumann Halls at the Vienna Music University. One jury group for violin and open category, the second group for viola, cello, piano and chamber music categories. 
The presidents of the two juries will be Mag. Tymur Melnyk and Daniel Auner, MA - without any voting power, ensuring the correctness of the competition procedures  Each contestant has 15-20 Minutes of performance time in the first round. The jury might interrupt the performance if this performance duration is exceeded. 6 to 8 participants may be chosen by the jury to perform at the Gala Final on the 12th of August with the ICOV – International Chamber Orchestra Vienna under Maestro Otavio Serpa.  The whole competition is open to public.  Performance quality, presentation and repertoire choice will all be judged. No questions about the judging procedures are permitted. The competition venue is provided with piano, no further instruments are being provided by the organization.