Solti award for Spanish-American
OrchestrasThe 2024 Georg Solti award for a US conductor under 36 has been awarded to François López-Ferrer, a Paris-based applicant.
A former Dudamel fellow, López-Ferrer is presently resident conductor of the Academie of the Opéra de Paris.
He takes home $30,000.
Past winners include Keitaro Harada, Earl Lee, Gemma New, Yaniv Dinur, Roderick Cox, Karina Canellakis and Cristian Macelaru.
He is the son of conductor Jesús López-Cobos (1940—2018), who held positions with the Deutsche Oper, Teatro Real, Orquesta Nacional de España, and Cincinnati Symphony.
Taken from each of these conductors’ websites:
Lopez-Ferrer: Spanish-American
Keitaro Harada: Japanese
Earl Lee: Korean-Canadian
Gemma New: New Zealander
Yaniv Dinur: Israeli
Roderick Cox: American
Karina Canellakis: American
Cristian Macelaru: Romanian
In the last 8 years, only 3 of the winners of this award, supposedly for American conductors, has been an American conductor…
It would appear that the awarders are considering people who make their careers in the US.
You must be right. Although, they might want to update their website if that is true. This is what they themselves have to say:
“The Solti Foundation U.S. is the foremost organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to helping young American conductors. Established in 2000 to honor the memory of Sir Georg Solti by lending significant support to career-ready young American musicians, in 2004, the Foundation concentrated the focus of its award program to exclusively assist talented young American conductors early in their professional careers.”
Just saying…