Taichi Fukumura has joined KD SCHMID US for general management. The Japanese-American conductor is Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, where he has led an initiative to broaden the ensemble’s repertoire. A Second Prize winner at the Mahler Competition 2023 and four-time recipient of the Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award, his recent and forthcoming engagements include debuts with the Utah Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Bamberg Symphony and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.
KD SCHMID has also signed conductor Leonhard Kreutzmann for management. He first came to international attention as a finalist in the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, where he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra. Currently Chief Conductor of the KHG-Orchester Freiburg and a scholar of the German Music Council’s Forum Dirigieren, he served as Assistant Conductor to Dirk Kaftan with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn at Beethovenfest 2025. He is studying conducting at the Zurich University of the Arts with Christoph-Mathias Mueller and Johannes Schlaefli.
Jakub Przybycień has joined Askonas Holt‘s main roster, having previously been a member of the agency’s Conducting Fellowship. A Designate Winner of the International Conducting Competition Rotterdam and recipient of the 2025 Ernst-von-Schuch Conducting Prize, the Polish conductor made debuts this season with the Orquestra Sinfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, the Arctic Philharmonic and Deutsche Philharmonie Merck. Next season brings further debuts with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra and at Theater Nordhausen, conducting Massenet’s Werther, alongside his new role as Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
