The conducting competition that gave the likes of Gustavo Dudamel (who won in 2004) a platform to launch his career had announced its shortlist.
The competition received 381 applications, with only 14 candidates selected. Of these 11 female conductors were chosen and three male. Now in its 5th year, the competition takes place from 6 – 13 May 2016 in Bamberg.
The Jury: Jiří Bělohlávek (conductor), John Carewe (conductor), Barbara Hannigan (singer and conductor), Sir Neville Marriner (conductor), Jörg Widmann (conductor and composer), David Zinman (conductor), Deborah Borda (president and CEO, Los Angeles Philharmonic), Martin Campbell-White (consultant and founder, Askonas Holt), Ara Guzelimian (provost and dean, The Juilliard School), Marcus Rudolf Axt (chief executive, Bamberg Symphony) and one member of the orchestra.
The Candidates: Rodolfo Barráez (Venezuela), Gabriel Bebeselea (Romania), Paolo Bortolameolli (Chile), Tong Chen (China), Anna Duczmal-Mróz (Poland), Keitaro Harada (Japan), Georg Köhler (Germany), Sergey Neller (Russia), Gemma New (New Zealand), Eunseok Seo (South Korea), Valentin Uryupin (Russia), Vlad Vizireanu (Romania), Kahchun Wong (Singapore) und David Yi (USA).