Alexandre Bloch Wins Prestigious Competition

French conductor Alexandre Bloch has been named the winner of the prestigious Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition, receiving £15,000 and the chance to work as Assistant Conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra for one year.

The competition was created by Donatella Flick in 1990 and is open to conductors under the age of 35 who are citizens of the 27 countries having full membership of the European Union. On winning, Alexandre, who joined the RNCM in September 2012 as its Sir John Zochonis Junior Fellow in Conducting, said: ‘Conducting the London Symphony Orchestra was an incredible, thrilling experience, and I am extremely happy to have the opportunity to work with them these two upcoming years. I am also very excited about the perspective of working alongside great conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Valery Gergiev and all the guest conductors of the LSO.’

Clark Rundell, Head of Conducting at the RNCM, added: ‘The Donatella Flick competition is one of the première conducting competitions in the world, not only for the monetary prize but for the invaluable opportunity to work with the London Symphony Orchestra. We were not only delighted with Alexander’s victory but also with the presence of two other RNCM conductors in the semi-finals, Jonathan Lo and Courtney Lewis. To have a 30% RNCM presence at that stage was very pleasing indeed. Alexandre is the second RNCM Junior fellow to win the competition as the inaugural event was won by Paul Manne.’

24 October 2012