Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Congrats to David Afkham!

For some time I've been raving about a hugely talented young conductor,  David Afkham, and in today's Daily [daily paper of the Salzburg Festival] we learn that he's won the best young conductor award in Salzburg. On behalf of the Jury that included many famous conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Franz Welser-Möst (FWM)...


 David ‹— FWM

FWM said
David Afkham proved his ability in a unique way, and is a worthy winner for the first 'Nestlé' and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award.

I am sorry that I won't be able to attend his concert here in Salzburg, next Saturday (August 14th) at the Felsenreitschule, where he will conduct the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in a performance of works by Ligeti, Beethoven, and Shostakovich. Hopefully Boulezian or Musica Sola will - so check out for their reports.


Notice that David Afkham will conduct Orchestre National de France at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in a performance of the Symphony #10 by Shostakovich - December 2 2010.




Photo cut from today's 'Daily' in Salzburg

2 comments:

  1. I was there - an incredible concert, where you totally forgot after one minute that the guy with the baton is only 28. I'll write more, but I'm still stunned from this concert !

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  2. You maybe remember how I was pulling for him for the last couple of years and when I saw he was awarded the best young conductor I was so glad the young man finally gets a recognition he truly deserves. Apparently Haitink --who's not so crazy about coaching young conductors-- was very impressed by David (at some point David was his assistant in Chicago). Boulez is also full of praise for him too...

    Looking forward to your note on the concert ;)

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