Elim Chan has won the 2014 Donatella Flick conducting competition.
The Hong Kong-born British conductor, 28, is the first female winner of the competition in its 24-year history. She conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.
Other finalists were Mihhail Gerts from Estonia and Jiří Rožeň from the Czech Republic. They were selected from a shortlist of 20 conductors over the course of the competition.
Chan was presented with a prize of £15,000 after a public concert conducted by the three finalists on Monday 8 December.
Her prize also includes the opportunity to act as assistant conductor with the LSO for one year, where she will work alongside principal conductor Valery Gergiev, principal guest conductors Michael Tilson Thomas and Daniel Harding and other visiting conductors.
Before competing for the Donatella Flick prize, 28-year-old Chan was music director of both the Michigan Pops Orchestra and the University of Michigan Campus Philharmonia Orchestra. She studied conducting with Kenneth Kiesler at Michigan University and has worked with the renowned conductors Gustav Meier, Colin Metters and Marin Alsop in the past.
This year's jury included conductors Daniel Harding, Xian Zhang, Vladimir Spivakov and Bertrand de Billy.
Photo: Clive Totman/LSO
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