Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel at the Royal Festival Hall

Thursday 2 June 2005, 7:30 pm
Royal Festival Hall I
I nternational Conductors' Academy
Series Philharmonia Orchestra
Booking Information: 0870 401 8181
9am - 8pm Monday - Sunday.

Conductors:
Gustavo Dudamel (Venezuela) **
Eva Ollikainen (Finland) *
Jean-Philippe Tremblay (Canada ) ***
Patricia Kopatchinskaja ( violin)
Jean-Guihen Queyras ( cello)
Mihaela Ursuleasa ( piano)

Programme :
Ludwig Van Beethoven Triple Concerto ***
INTERVAL
Richard Strauss Tod und Verklarung **
Harrison Birtwistle The Triumph of Time *

In cooperation with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London, South Bank Centre London

Presented by the International Conductors' Academy, this concert is the highlight of its second year, initiated and supported by the Allianz Cultural Foundation.

Selected internationally by Christoph von Dohnanyi and Kurt Masur for their astonishing talent, the Academy offers a unique opportunity for three flourishing young conductors to work alongside the Philharmonia and London Philharmonic Orchestras with their respective Principal Conductors. A chance to hear the next generation of conductors and soloists.

The background for this project which is planned to run from 2004 - 2006 is the internationally striking lack of young, professional conductors. Only a few universities offer a qualified training in which young ambitious musicians are given the chance to be taught by an internationally renowned conductor, how to lead an orchestra. To avoid even first-class orchestras and ensembles suffering from a lack of young conductors, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Allianz Cultural Foundation have founded an initiative, which enables the young talents to attend a master course with Kurt Masur and Christoph von Dohnányi.

The young conductors are given the chance to spend a year accompanying the rehearsals and concerts of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra and conduct a rehearsal themselves under the auspices of their maestro. In addition to the rehearsing phases in London the up-and-coming musicians have an opportunity in the second year of the project to accompany the maestro Kurt Masur and the London Philharmonic Orchestra on a concert tour to Athens and collect valuable experience with a top international orchestra.

Every year a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, which is open to the public, marks the end of the Conductors' Academy, in which the candidates conduct a work which they have rehearsed with the Philharmonia Orchestra. The closing concert of the second project phase 2004/2005 will be held on 2.6.2005 at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The concert will give the 22 year-old Eva Ollikainen, the 23 year-old Gustavo Dudamel and the 24 year-old Jean-Philippe Tremblay a unique opportunity to prove their extraordinary talent with the baton in front of an international audience.