Menuhin Festival awards Järvi Prize
The 8th Neeme Järvi Prize was awarded as part of the Gstaad Conducting Academy. The awards go to Lithuania, the USA, Spain and France.
Over the past three weeks, young conductors have had the opportunity to work and perform with the Gstaad Festival Orchestra and the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra. They were conducted by Jaap van Zweden, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, and Johannes Schlaefli, Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the Zurich University of the Arts.
Four of the ten participants were awarded a Neeme Järvi Prize. Lithuanian Izabele Jankauskaite has been invited to conduct the Bern Symphony Orchestra and the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra in the coming season and will also conduct the Musikkollegium Winterthur in a concert next season.
The American Kyrian Friedenberg will conduct the Basel Chamber Orchestra and the Spaniard Daniel Huertas will conduct the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, while the Frenchman Samuel Rachid has received a second invitation from the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra. The Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne will also be inviting guest conductors in the coming season.
The jury consisted of the chairman Christoph Müller (Artistic Director Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy) and the assessor Lukas Wittermann (Executive Director Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy), the professors of the Gstaad Conducting Academy Jaap van Zweden (assisted by Peter Biloen) and Johannes Schlaefli, two representatives of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra (Vlad Stančuleasa, concertmaster, and David Bruchez, solo trombone) as well as representatives of all partner orchestras.
