Kildish, a recent graduate from the national music conservatoire in Riga, Latvia, was awarded €3,000.

The competition attracted nearly 50 initial international applicants, all working or studying in Europe but including conductors from Taiwan, Russia and the UK, as well as across the EU. A shortlist of 18 competitors worked over three rounds with an amateur choir (the Fynske Kammerkor), a youth choir (SNUK – the Svendborg Nye Ungdomskor), and the professional singers of DR’s Danish National Vocal Ensemble. The three finalists conducted the DNVE in a short programme of music by Victoria, Niels W. Gade, Carl Nielsen and Bent Sørensen.

The competition jury comprised Povl Christian Balslev and Alice Granum from Denmark, Stefan Parkman from Sweden, Ralf Sochaczewsky from Germany and Michael Emery from the UK. They decided to split second and third place, awarding two second prizes (of €1,500 each) to James Potter (director of music at Magdalene College, Cambridge) and Martin Hellberg (conductor of the male voice choir Sönerna in Uppsala, and assistant conductor of St Jacob’s chamber choir, Stockholm).

The next edition of the Northern Choir Conducting Competition will be in 2026.