Dudamel names four more fellows
OrchestrasWelcome to the most successful springboard to a conducting career:
The four conductors selected by Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil as 2024/25 Dudamel Fellows are Holly Hyun Choe, born in South Korea and raised in Los Angeles, and principal conductor of the chamber orchestra Ensemble Reflektor, Artiste Associé for L’Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, former assistant conductor of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under Paavo Järvi, selected for the German Music Council’s Grant Forum Dirigieren (2018), Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award recipient, Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship scholarship recipient, and participant in the Peter Eötvös Foundation Mentoring Programme; Dayner Tafur-Díaz, born in Peru, who won the German Conducting Award (October 2023), First Prize in the second edition of the International Opera Conducting Competition of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège (Belgium, August 2022) and Second Prize in the conducting competition of the University of Almería (Spain, November 2022) and was selected as one of 20 finalists in the 2023 Mahler Competition; Luis Castillo-Briceño (pictured), born in Costa Rica, who is the Conducting Fellow of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2023/24 season, an Equilibrium Young Artist mentored by Barbara Hannigan, and a designated winner in the Rotterdam International Conducting Competition 2025.; and Molly Turner, a Chinese-born conductor and composer from Tacoma, Washington, who is the Conducting Fellow with the New World Symphony and studied under the guidance of Esa-Pekka Salonen as a Salonen Fellow at the Colburn School’s Conservatory of Music. Please click here for more information about the Dudamel Fellows.
How about bringing on an American fellow, you know, for an American orchestra? Sems rather deliberate to me.
Holly Hyun Choe and Molly Turner may not have been born in the United States, but they were raised there, the former in Los Angeles and the latter in Tacoma. They are American.
Two Asian-Americans and two Hispanics. How terribly diverse.
They were absolutely the most qualified and most deserving recipients. 😉
Funded by US donor money. Why is the US funding talent from the rest of the world & not its own? Dudamel clearly has a bias against US born & trained conductors. He does this every single year. The US donors funding this program should call him on that, IMHO.
Two of them grew up in and were trained in the US. How are so many people here missing this?
Four completely different countries of origin; two women, two men. But diversity was not the criterion.
Holly is a wonderful person. She will take full advantage of this opportunity.