The Princess Astrid International Music Competition, based in Trondheim, Norway, has announced this year’s winning conductors.
The top prize went to 29-year-old Hong Kong-born British conductor Alvin Ho, who received NOK 160,000 (€15,000) as well as a future concert engagement with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. A former recipient of the Bruno Walter Conducting Fellowship at the Cabrillo Contemporary Music Festival and the Farber Karajan Conducting Fellowship at the Salzburg Festival, Ho was recently appointed Deputy Conductor of the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra.
The second prize of NOK 50,000 went to 33-year-old Australian-British conductor Toby C Thatcher, while the third prize of NOK 25,000 went to Chinese conductor Junping Qian, 32.
The winners – selected from 12 contestants – were announced after a final in which each of the contestants led Anna Clyne’s Masqueradea play inspired by 18th century promenade concerts in London’s amusement parks, where people from all walks of life were entertained by music, acrobatics, exotic street performers, dancers, fireworks and costume balls.
The jury included Han-Na Chang (TSO conductor), Jasper Parrott, Peter Szilvay, Daniel Turcina, Anna-Maria Helsing, Anna Clyne and Elise Båtnes.
Created in 1953, the competition is a biennial event for under 35s that alternates violin and conducting.
