A new prize for 2023, ‘Best Conducting of a Contemporary Composition’, went to American conductor Kevin Fitzgerald.

The repertoire of the competition, which took place in Bamberg, Germany from 7 to 13 July, included Mahler‘s Symphony No. 7, from which different movements were played in each round. Additional repertoire included Haydn’s Symphony No. 92, Berg’s Seven Early Songs and Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto.

The final concert takes place on 15 July, and will feature winner Mengoli conducting the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, plus a performance from baritone Thomas Hampson.

Mengoli has worked as assistant conductor at the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands National Opera under Lorenzo Viotti. This spring, he assisted the artistic team of the Orchestre National de France in the new production of Puccini‘s La bohème at the Theatre de Champs-Elysee, supporting Viotti and the ensemble during the rehearsal phase.

In 2022, Mengoli was concertmaster for the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra’s summer tour, with conductors Teodor Currentzis and Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

More candidates than ever before applied for the 2023 competition: with 350 valid applications (282 male, 67 female and one diverse). Of these, 16 male and four female conductors were invited to compete at the finals in Bamberg.

The Mahler Competition was founded by the Bamberg Symphony and its then principal conductor Jonathan Nott in 2004, and takes place every three years.

The patron of both the Competition and the Mahler Foundation is Marina Mahler, the composer’s granddaughter. Czech conductor and Bamber Symphony principal conductor Jakub Hrůša is jury president.

Pic: Marian Lenhard