Harish Shankar, the RNCM’s Junior Fellow in Conducting, won Third Prize in the Sixth Jorma Panula Conducting Competition.
Held in Finland last week, the competition is described as ‘one of the most prestigious new-generation conducting contests in Europe’, offering young European conductors an exciting opportunity to gain valuable experience, promote their own work and raise their profile. It is led by (and named after) Professor Jorma Panula, who has been training young conductors for almost 40 years, and is organised by the Viljo and Maire Vuorio Foundation in collaboration with the City of Vaasa.
Twenty conductors competed in this year’s competition, which included first and second preliminary rounds and a semi-final, with three making it through to the final. For this, each competitor was asked to conduct the Vaasa City Orchestra in movements of two pieces.
Harish, who won 6000 euros and will conduct performance of RNCM Opera’s Street Scene next month, said: ‘The competition was a new and amazing experience. There was strong camaraderie among the participants and an amazing sense of good will and enthusiasm from the wonderful orchestras that took part. It was a joy making such beautiful music with them, and meeting Maestro Panula and Magnus Lindberg was brilliant.’
Jorma Panula added: ‘Charisma and the ability to communicate with an orchestra are two of the properties I look for in a winner.’
