British baton wins key post at New York Philharmonic

Courtney Lewis, 29, has been named New York Philharmonic Assistant Conductor, starting September 2014.

Belfast born, Courtney studied composition with Robin Holloway at Cambridge and conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music, where his teachers included Sir Mark Elder and Clark Rundell. He has served as a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and as assistant conductor with the Minnesota Orchestra.

Alan Gilbert said: ‘We discovered Courtney after an extensive audition process, and he emerged as a very promising future colleague as our next Assistant Conductor.’

RNCM graduates from the last six years currently hold assistant conductor / fellowship posts with:

Berlin Phil – Duncan Ward

New York Phil – Courtney Lewis

LSO – Alexandre Bloch

ENO – Gergely Madaras

Halle – Jamie Phillips

CBSO – Alpesh Chauhan

A three day competition to select next years new junior fellow starts on Saturday.