German Conducting Award Announces 2023 Winners

Conductor Dayner Tafur-Díaz won first prize, in addition to the Kurt Masur Audience Award and award for best interpretation of a contemporary work

The German Conducting Award, formerly known as the German Conductor Prize, is an international competition for young conductors organized by the German Music Council.

Unique in that it requires candidates to have experience in both operatic and symphonic works, its most recent edition recently came to a close and was held for the fourth time in Cologne.

Preceded by a week-long competition, the final round saw three candidates perform with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, the singers from the Oper Köln, and the WDR Sinfonieorchester at the Kölner Philharmonie.

The first prize, worth €15,000 and donated two-thirds by the city of Cologne and one-third by the Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation, went to Dayner Tafur-Díaz.

Nathanaël Iselin receives the 2nd prize, which is worth €10,000. The 3rd prize, worth €5,000, goes to Claudio Novati, donated by the Ursula Lübbe Foundation, among others.

The audience prize of €3,000 was donated by the International Kurt Masur Institute and was awarded to Dayner Tafur-Díaz. The latter also won the Special Award for the best interpretation of a contemporary work which included €500.

In addition to the prize money, follow-up funding is an important part of the competition's prize. The orchestras and opera houses that have already confirmed engagements for a prize winner include the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the Hof Symphony Orchestra, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Cologne Opera, Theater and Orchestra Heidelberg, and the WDR Symphony Orchestra.

This year's jury included Prof. Dr. Hartmut Haenchen, Enrico Delamboye, Stefan Englert, Torsten Janicke, Sebastian König, Louwrens Langevoort, Karl-Heinz Lehner, Hein Mulders, Anna Skryleva, Michael Wendeberg, and Ye Wu.

Dayner Tafur-Díaz began his musical training as a trumpeter and pianist, gaining early conducting experience after winning a scholarship to participate in Peru's "Arpeggio" program. He moved to Germany in 2017 to pursue his conducting career and has since enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart, where he studies with Rasmus Baumann.