The German Conducting Award (GCA) (formerly Deutscher Dirigentenpreis) is an international competition for concert and opera conducting and serves to promote young conductors of all nations who are younger than 33 years of age.

History of the prize

The German Conducting Award is organised by the

Deutscher Musikrat The Deutscher Musikrat (DMR, ''German Music Council''; ) is an umbrella organization for music associations and the 16 music councils of the German federal states.musikrat.deÜberblick über Organisationsstruktur des DMR(retrieved on 10 May 2019) ...

(Bonn) in partnership with the

Kölner Philharmonie The Kölner Philharmonie is a symphonic concert hall located in Cologne, Germany. It is part of the building assemble of the Museum Ludwig and was opened in 1986. The Kölner Philharmonie is located close to the Cologne Cathedral and the Cologn ...

, the Cologne Opera, the

Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne The Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne (german: Gürzenich-Orchester Köln) is a German symphony orchestra based in Cologne. On some recordings, the orchestra goes under the name "Gürzenich-Orchester Kölner Philharmoniker". Its name comes from its ...

and the

WDR Symphony Orchestra The WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne (German: WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln) is a German radio orchestra based in Cologne, where the orchestra mainly performs at two concert halls: the WDR Funkhaus Wallrafplatz and the Kölner Philharmonie. Histor ...

. As a cultural partner, the competition is accompanied by the West German Radio's

WDR 3 WDR 3 is a German public radio station owned and operated by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (''West German Broadcasting Cologne''; WDR, ) is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North ...

culture wave. The prize was first awarded in 1995 as the Prize of th
Forum Dirigieren
to outstanding scholarship holders of the support programme. It was awarded internationally for the first time in 2017 and is held every two years. A unique selling point is the inclusion of the genres of opera and concert in the repertoire. The competition is open to the public from the second round onwards.

Prize money

The prize is endowed with a total of 33,000 euros, making it one of the highest endowed conducting competitions in Europe. * 1st prize: 15,000 euros (donated by the City of Cologne et al.) * 2nd prize: 10,000 euros * 3rd prize: 5,000 euros (donated by the Ursula Lübbe Foundation et al.) * Kurt Masur Audience Award: 3,000 euros (donated by the International Kurt Masur Institute) The winners receive concert engagements and assistances at opera houses and German partner orchestras.

Jury

The members of the jury change and for the first award in 2017 consisted of: *

Peter Gülke Peter Ludwig Gülke (born 29 April 1934) is a German conductor and musicologist. Biography Born in Weimar, Gülke studied cello and musicology at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar. He completed his doctorate in philosophy in Leipzi ...

, honorary chairman, conductor and musicologist * Lothar Zagrosek, chairman and conductor * Lioba Braun, Mezzo-soprano * Siegwald Bütow, Manager and Producer of the WDR Symphony Orchestra * Louwrens Langevoort, Director of the Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra *

Birgit Meyer Birgit Meyer (born 21 March 1960) is a German professor of religious studies at Utrecht University. Career Meyer was born on 21 March 1960 in Emden, Germany. She studied comparative religion, pedagogy, and cultural anthropology at the University ...

, Director of the Cologne Opera * Stephan Mösch, music and theatre scholar, publicist

Prize winners

Prizewinners of the Conductors' Forum (1995–2015)

* 1995:

Marc Piollet Marc Piollet (born 1962) is a French conductor. After positions at the Staatstheater Kassel and Volksoper in Vienna, he was Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden from 2004 to 2012. Career Born in Paris, Piollet st ...

* 1999:

Gabriel Feltz In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብር� ...

* 2001: Christian Voß * 2002:

Matthias Foremny Matthias is a name derived from the Greek Ματθαίος, in origin similar to Matthew. People Notable people named Matthias include the following: In religion: * Saint Matthias, chosen as an apostle in Acts 1:21–26 to replace Judas Iscariot * ...

* 2004:

Markus Poschner Markus Poschner (born 1971, Munich) is a German conductor and pianist. Biography Poschner studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich with Hermann Michael. His mentors and supporters included Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Colin Dav ...

* 2006: Mihkel Kütson * 2009: Simon Gaudenz * 2011: Francesco Angelico * 2013:

Kristiina Poska Kristiina Poska (born 12 July 1978, Türi, Estonia) is an Estonian conductor. Biography At age eight, Poska began piano lessons. She graduated from Türi Music School in piano studies in 1994, and then studied choral conducting at the Georg Ot ...

* 2015: Leo McFall

Winners of the German Conducting Award (from 2017)

* 2017: ** Hossein Pishkar (1st prize winner) ** Dominic Beikirch (2nd prize winner) ** Anna Rakitina (3rd prize winner) ** Vladimir Yaskorski (special prize winner) * 2019: **

Julio García Vico Julio is the Spanish equivalent of the month July and may refer to: *Julio (given name) *Julio (surname) *Júlio de Castilhos, a municipality of the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * ''Julio'' (album), a 1983 compilation albu ...

German Conducting Prize of 18 October 2019: Julio García Vico wins the German Conducting Prize 2019
called on 28 October 2019 (1st prize winner) ** Gábor Hontvári (2nd prize winner) ** Chloé van Soeterstède (3rd prize winner) * 2021: ** Martijn Dendievel (Belgium) (1st prize winner) ** Aivis Greters (Latvia) (2nd prize winner) ** Hangyul Chung (South Korea) (3rd prize winner) ** Hangyul Chung (South Korea) (Audience Award) * 2023: ** Dayner Tafur-Díaz (Peru) (1st prize winner) ** Nathanaël Iselin (France) (2nd prize winner) ** Claudio Novati (Italy) (3rd prize winner) ** Dayner Tafur-Díaz (Peru) (Audience Award)

References

External links

* {{portal bar, Classical music, Germany Conducting competitions