© Wolfgang Lienbacher/Salzburger Festspiele

The award winner concert of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award at the Felsenreitschule on August 14, 2010 with David Afkham, Till Fellner and the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER was widely acclaimed by the audience and by the press:

Following the concert featuring Ligeti: Atmosphères, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 the chairman of the jury, Franz Welser-Möst, presented the award to David Afkham. He lauded him by saying that unlike many of today’s young conducting stars, Afkham does not conduct the audience but the music and the musicians.

Radio broadcast:

Ö1, August 27, 2010, 10:05 AM

David Afkham, who has held the position of assistant conductor at the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER since 2009, is the first recipient of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award.

Following a thorough selection process among 81 candidates from all over the world (of whom 16 were women), a prominent jury which was under the auspices of Pierre Boulez and chaired by Franz Welser-Möst voted for David Afkham. Read more...

After a very exciting 2010 easter tour – consequence of the volcanic eruptions in Iceland – under Antonio Pappano, the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER is starting into the summer with a very special programme: Herbert Blomstedt conducts Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, Mathis der Maler by Paul Hindemith and Anton Bruckner’s Symphony no. 9. The great baritone Christian Gerhaher could be won for this project and will be going on a pan European tour with the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER.

In the second programme Herbert Blomstedt, Hilary Hahn and the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER will be performing in Bolzano and the Salzburg Festival; only here will the violin concerto be performed in conjunction with Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler.

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