Pablo González, First Prize, May 2006

Pablo González has been Assistant Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Sinfonietta and the National Youth Orchestra of Spain.

 

Born in 1975 in Oviedo (Spain), where he began his musical studies, he later studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) where he began his conducting career. During this period he worked with the  BBC Singers (London) and with the Bach-Collegium Orchestra and the Gächinger Kantorei (Stuttgart) and made his Barbican Hall debut. He also took part in the Contemporary Music Festival "ISCM World Music Days" in Manchester. Around that time, Pablo began his two-year association with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Bournemouth Sinfonietta, conducting the orchestras in more than fifty performances through the South and West of England. Later on, working with the London Symphony Orchestra, he collaborated with Sir Colin Davis on the recording of Berlioz's 'The Trojans' - winner of two 'Grammy' awards.

 

In June 1998 he won a prize in the "First National Competition for Young Conductors" in Granada (Spain). In October 2000 he was the winner of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition (ex-aequo with Francois-Xavier Roth). In May 2006 he won the First Prize at the 8th Cadaqués Orchestra International Conducting Competition,

 

After a long illness which Pablo has now left behind, he reappeared  in a concert with Maxim Vengerov and the 'Orquesta Ciudad de Almería' in November 2005. He has also worked with other prestigious soloists as Renaud Capuçon, Asier Polo or David Fernández. He has conducted the Danish Radio Sinfonietta, Orquesta Nacional de España, Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, Orquesta Sinfónica Ciudad de Oviedo, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Orquesta de Córdoba, Orquesta Joven de Andalucía, Orquesta de Extremadura, Orquesta del Vallés and Camerata Siglo XXI, amongst others. Future engagements include performances with Orquesta Sinfonica de Bilbao, Rotterdam Philarmonic Orchestra, BBC Philarmonic Orchestra, Wiener Kammerorchester, Orquesta de la Radiotelevisión Española, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Orquesta de Cadaques, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Winterthur Musikkollegium, etc.




Hans Leenders, Second Prize of the VII Competition - 2004

Hans Leenders was born in 1971. He studied percussion and conducting at the Rotterdam Conservatory (1989-1996). In 1995 he obtained the position of percussionist at the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He has taught classical percussion at the Rotterdam Conservatory since 1997.

After receiving the Anton Kersjes scholarship he followed masterclasses with Ilja Moesin, Valery Gergiev and Jorma Panula. He was a finalist at the International Kirill Kondrashin Competition for conductors (1997). One year later he was appointed assistant-conductor at the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for five years, thanks to the Bernard Haitink Scholarship.



He has conducted several Dutch orchestras, including the Residentie Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Orchestra, the Gelders Orchestra, Holland Symphonia and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2001 he replaced Valery Gergiev during the opening concert of the Gergiev Festival and during a matinee concert in the Amsterdam Concertgebown, which was broadcast on television. He will debut with the Royal Concertgbouw Orchestra (2004/05). Valery Gergiev has invited him to conduct the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.

Vasily Petrenko, First Prize of the Sixth Competition -July 2002

He is presently music director of the Zazerkalye State Music Theatre of St. Petersburg and guest conductor of St. Petersburg State Academy Symphony. He is also principal guest conductor of the Kranoyarsk State Philharmonic Symphony. He has given numerous performances with the State Academy Symphony Orchestra, the Youth Orchestra, and the Conservatory Opera, all of them based in St. Petersburg. He studied Operatic/Symphonic Conducting DMA program in St. Petersburg, and graduated from all three 'Summa Cum Laude'. He won the following awards: Special Prize, First All-Russian Choral Conducting Competition (Salavat, Russia, 1995); First Prize, Shostakovich Choral Conducting Competition (St. Petersburg, 1997); Diploma at the second International Competition of Young Conductors Lovro von Matacic, Zagreb (Croatia, 1999).


Cristopher Müller, Second Prize of the Fifth Competition -2000

He is currently principal guest conductor of the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Previously, he held the position of assistant conductor to Vladimir Ashkenazy with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. He has also accompanied the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on a tour as Claudio Abbado's music assistant. After finishing his studies with with highest honours at the Basel Conservatory he continued his conducting studies in the US. In 1995 he was invited as a Conducting Fellow to the Tanglewood Festival. His invitations as guest conductor have included, amongst others, the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, the National Orchestra of Lyon, the Zürich Chamber Orchestra and the Winterthur Symphony Orchestra.
 Gloria Isabel Ramos First Prize of the Fourth Competition - 1998

Two weeks after qualifying as an orchestra conductor in 1995, Ramos won the First Prize at the Besançon International Competition for Young Orchestra Conductors, in the opera section. A few weeks later she was awarded the Brasov Orchestra Prize in the "Dinu Niculescu" International Competition (Romania).

Following these successes, Gloria Isabel Ramos made her debut in Spain in 1996 with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of Galicia.

In June 1998, Ramos won First Prize in the National Competition for Young Conductors held by the City of Granada Orchestra. In July that year she received First Prize in the Cadaqués International Competition for Orchestra Conductors from its chairman, Gennady Rozhdestvensky.



Among her recent successes are performances in May 1999 at the Great Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg in her first concert with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra; with the Wienner Kammerorchester and the Luzema Symphony Orchestra, as well as numerous orchestras in Spain.

In August 2000 she conducted the Cadaqués Orchestra at the Peralada Festival in a new production of The barber of Seville, directed by Carles Santos.

Among her future engagements are concerts with the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra and a tour of Spain with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

Achim Fiedler, First Prize of the Third Competition - 1996

Winner of the Cadaqués International Competition for Orchestra Conductors in 1996, under the chairmanship of Sir Neville Marriner, Achim Fiedler studied conducting in Milan with Franco Gallini and at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart with Thomas Ungar. In 1997 he was awarded the Karajan scholarship. He had previously studied the violin with Gawriloff at the Musikhochschule in Cologne and with John Glickman in London.

His conducting career began in 1991 with orchestras in Germany such as the Reutlingen Philharmonic and the Baden-Baden Symphony Orchestra, and with the Gyor Philharmonic Orchestra in Hungary. He has received master classes in conducting from Gustav Meier, Seiji Ozawa and Bernard Haitink at the Tanglewood Music Centre (USA) and has conducted its orchestra.

In 1995 he was assistant conductor to Bernard Haitink with the European Union Youth Orchestra and won Third Prize in the Grzegorz Fitelberg International Conducting Competition. He has also worked as assistant to Carlo Maria Giulini with the National Youth Orchestra of Spain.



Since winning the Cadaqués prize for conducting, he has conducted numerous concerts with Spanish orchestras and with the Wienner Kammerorchester, and has been invited back regularly by many of them. He has also conducted the Wuppertal Orchestra and the Hanover Radio Orchestra.

Since 1998 he has been Principal Conductor of the Luzerna Festival Strings, with whom he has given a large number of concerts in Switzerland and Germany as well as world tours.

Gianandrea Noseda, First Prize of the Second Competition - 1994

Gianandrea Noseda has achieved in a short time a solid position in the international panorama: invited by Valery Gergiev as Principal Guest Conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in October 1997, he was then appointed Principal Conductor of the Orquesta de Cadaqués up to the appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in February 1999. In April 2000 he was appointed Artistic Director of the International Festival "Settimane Musicali di Stresa e de Lago Maggiore" in Italy.

Gianandrea Noseda was born in Milan where he completed his musical studies. Subsequently he attended conducting courses first in Vienna and then in Italy with Donato Renzetti, Myung-Whun Chung and Valery Gergiev. In 1994 he won international competitions in Douai (with Georges Prête) and Cadaqués (with Gennadi Rozhdenstvensky). After the debut with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi he began his collaboration with the Kirov Orchestra both on tour (in Italy, France, Portugal, Argentina, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Germany, Israel, Finland) and in St. Petersburg with new productions of Rigoletto and Tosca (1997), Le nozze di Figaro, La Traviata and La Sonnambula (1998), Don Carlo and Don Giovanni (1999), Lucia di Lammermoor (2000). He has also conducted new productions with the Kirov Ballet of Ramanskj Evening (1998), Sleeping Beauty and Balanchine´s Jewels (1999).

Gianandrea Noseda collaborates with Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai in Turin, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Orchestra dell´Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia. He conducted new productions with Teatro Real in Madrid (Le nozze di Figaro), the Festival de Perelada (new production of The Magic Flute in 1998 and Carmen in 1999 with Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna), the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra (Lucia di Lammermoor at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam), the San Francisco Opera. In July 1999 he made his debut at Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he will come back in the 2001/2 season with War and peace of Prokof´ev. On June 2000 he opened the Kirov Opera & Ballet at the London´s Royal Opera House. In September 2001 he will make his debut with the Los Angeles Opera, and in the next season, he will come back for a new production of Les Contes d'Hoffmann. Future engagements of Gianandrea Noseda include debuts with important orchestras such as Toronto Symphony (April 2002), Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, BBC Philharmonic.

His discography includes recordings with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi on Claves label, Goyescas by Granados with the Orquesta de Cadaques and "Aria" with Andrea Bocelli and the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino on Philips Classics and, recently, a recording of Prokofiev´s brass arrangements with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Brass Ensemble.


Charles Peebles, First Prize of the First Competition-1992

Charles Peebles studied at Cambridge, the Guildhall, and as a conducting fellow at Tanglewood. He has conducted many distinguished orchestras and ensembles including the City of London Sinfonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, Composers Ensemble, Nash Ensemble, London Mozart Players, English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia and BBC Symphony Orchestra.

In 1992 he won Ist International Cadaques Conducting Competition in Spain and has since conducted virtually every major Spanish orchestra including Orquesta Nacional de Espana. Elsewhere he has conducted the Vienna Chamber Orchestra in Vienna, Bruckner's 9th Symphony with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, concerts in Turkey including with the Presidential Symphony and concerts with the National Symphony of Mexico.



Opera appearances have included many productions of a wide repertoire for English Touring Opera and Broomhill, Mozart's 'Cosi fan tutte' for Glyndebourne Touring Opera and a critically acclaimed series of Rossini opera productions for Garsington Opera. In 2001 Charles conducted Mozart's 'Don Giovanni' for Bavarian State Opera in Munich returning there for the same work in 2002. Recently he made his Far East debut in a televised concert with Jose Cura in Taiwan and conducted a hugely successful production of Cilea's L'arlesiana with Holland Park Opera and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.