David Afkham wins 2008 Donatella Flick Conducting Competition

The 25-year-old German was awarded the £15,000 prize at the finals at London's Barbican Hall on 2 October. He out-performed two other finalists, Ariane Matiakh from France and Michael Francis from Great Britain, to win the biennial competition for conductors under the age of 35.

Afkham conducted the London Symphony Ochestra (LSO) in a performance of Verdi's overture La Forza del Destino and Wagner's Siegfrieds Rheinfahrt and Trauermusik from Götterdämmerung.

In 2002, Afkham was victorious in his country's Jugend Musiziert Piano Competition and earlier this year he was awarded the Bernard Haitink Fund for Young Talent.

He will now go on to become assistant conductor of the LSO for a year. He will also participate in LSO Discovery projects and the orchestra's award-winning education programme.

Previous winners of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition include Michal Dworzynski, Fabien Gabel, Christophe Mangou, Francois-Xavier Roth and Paul Mann.

http://www.conducting.org/

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