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12 July – 31 August 2024

Cycle «Change II» 2023 — 2025

The Neeme Järvi Prize

The Neeme Järvi Prize – 2024 already awarded for the ninth time – offers active participants at the Gstaad Conducting Academy the special chance of being invited as guest conductor for professional orchestras.

The partner orchestras will invite the respective winners to act as guest conductor in the following season.

Throughout the entire duration of the Gstaad Conducting Academy the active participants will be under the surveillance of the instructors and the festival management. Moreover, representatives of the partner orchestras will be invited to gain an impression of the participating conductors.

Participants selected throughout the entire period will then conduct the GFO in the Gstaad Conducting Academy’s closing concert that takes place on 14 August 2024 in the Gstaad Festival Tent.

Right after the concert, the jury will elect and present the winners of Neeme Järvi Prize 2024. The jury will be composed of the Academy’s professors, Artistic Director Christoph Müller, representatives of the partner orchestras and representatives of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra.

Neeme Järvi Prize 2023 - Final Concert

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Anna Sułkowska-Migoń, Aurel Dawidiuk, Yukuang Jin (Fotos: Theresa Pewal)

Four prize winners at the 8th Neeme Järvi Prize

By taking part at the Gstaad Conducting Academy, conductors who are among the most talented of their generation were given the unique opportunity to work and give concerts with the internationally renowned Gstaad Festival Orchestra and the Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn under the direction of outstanding conductors during the past three weeks. For this year’s edition of the Gstaad Conducting Academy, Jaap van Zweden, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Guest Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Johannes Schlaefli, Professor for Orchestral Conducting at the Zurich University of Arts, have once again been engaged. 

At the final concert of Gstaad Conducting Academy, three of the ten participants this year were awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize. The Chinese conductor Yukuang Jin will have the opportunity to be a guest conductor at the Philharmonie Südwestfalen in an upcoming season. Anna Sułkowska-Migoń's win has means she has been invited to the Berner Symphonieorchester, Musikkollegium Winterthur and Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn. The German conductor Aurel Dawidiuk won a position as guest conductor at the Kammerorchester Basel, Orchestre de Chamber de Lausanne and the Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn.

The jury of the Neeme Järvi Prize 2023, chaired by Christoph Müller (Artistic Director of Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy) and Lukas Witterman (Executive Director of Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy), was formed by the professors of the Gstaad Conducting Academy, Jaap van Zweden (in assistance of Peter Biloen) and Johannes Schlaefli, two representatives of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra (Vlad Stančuleasa, concert master and Polina Peskina, 1st flute), as well as representatives of the partner orchestras.

Winners of the Neeme Järvi Prize 2023

Aurel Dawidiuk (GE): Guest conductor of the Kammerorchester Basel, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn

Anna Sułkowska-Migoń (PL): Guest conductor of the Berner Symphonieorchester, Musikkollegium Winterthur and Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn

Yukuang Jin (CHN): Guest conductor of the Philharmonie Südwestfalen

Winners of the Neeme Järvi Prize 2022

Izabelė Jankauskaitė (LT): Guest conductor of the Berner Symphonieorchester, the Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and the Musikkollegium Winterthur

Kyrian Friedenberg (US): Guest Conductor of the Kammerorchester Basel

Samy Rachid (FR): Guest Conductor of the Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn

Daniel Huertas (ES): Guest Conductor of the Philharmonie Südwestfalen

Winners of the Neeme Järvi Prize 2021

Andreas Ottensamer (AUT): Guest conductor of the Sinfonieorchester Basel and Kammerorchester Basel

Andreas Hansson (SWE): Guest Conductor of the Orchestra de Chamber de Lausanne and the Philharmonie Südwestfalen

Jakub Przybcień (PL): Promotion prize, Guest Conductor of the Berner Symphonieorchester and the Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn

Winners of the Neeme Järvi Prize 2019

Teresa Riveiro Böhm (AUT/ESP): Guest conductor of the Kammerorchester Basel

Hankyeol Yoon (KOR): Guest conductor of the Sinfonieorchester Basel

Jonas Bürgin (CH): Promotion prize, Guest Conductor of the Berner Symphonieorchester

Winners of the Neeme Järvi Prize 2018

Andrew Joon Choi (USA): Kammerorchester Basel, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Berner Symphonieorchester

Bar Avni (ISR): Re-Invitation to the Gstaad Conducting Academy 2019

Tabita Berglund (NOR): Re-Invitation to the Gstaad Conducting Academy 2019

Winners of the Neeme Järvi Prize 2017

Petr Popelka (Czech Republic): Kammerorchester Basel, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Berner Symphonieorchester

Katharina Wincor (Austria): Re-Invitation to the Gstaad Conducting Academy 2018

Winner of the Neeme Järvi Prize 2016

Joseph Bastian (Switzerland/France): Kammerorchester Basel, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Musikkollegium Winterthur

Winners of the Neeme Järvi Prize 2015

Nuno Coelho (Portugal): Kammerorchester Basel

François López-Ferrer (USA, Spain): Musikkollegium Winterthur

Toby Thatcher (Australia, UK): Sinfonieorchester Basel