German Conducting Award – Finale

At the German Conducting Award, young conductors compete in both opera and concert conducting. 

During the week-long competition, the young talents have access to outstanding partners and a first-class concert hall in the form of the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, the WDR Sinfonieorchester and the Opernchor Köln. Since 2017, the competition has been held at the Kölner Philharmonie, but the German Conducting Award has a much longer tradition: the prestigious award was first presented in 1995 as the  »Preis des Dirigentenforums«. In 2017, the competition took place in Cologne for the first time on an international scale and attracted considerable media attention.