The Donatella Flick Conducting Competition has been won by Felix Mildenberger.

As part of the prize, the 28-year-old German conductor, who since 2017 has been Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de France, now becomes Assistant Conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra for one year, working alongside Music Director Sir Simon Rattle and Principal Guest Conductors François-Xavier Roth (himself a former Donatella Flick Conducting Competition winner) and Gianandrea Noseda. He also receives a £15,000 cash prize.

In last night’s competition, held at London’s Barbican, Mildenberger beat Harry Ogg, 27 and from the UK, and Alexander Colding Smith, 29 from Denmark, to the accolade. Repertoire in which they were assessed included the Prelude to Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 2 (with soloist Vadim Repin) and Kodály’s Dances of Galánta. Judges include Sian Edwards, Tadaaki Otaka, François-Xavier Roth and Yan Pascal Tortelier, the violinist Vadim Repin, Gareth Davies (LSO Principal Flute), Christine Pendrill, (LSO Principal Cor Anglais), and Lennox Mackenzie former LSO Sub-Leader.

The Competition’s final round was live-streamed on medici.tv. Gramophone published an interview with the competition’s founder Donatella Flick about the event earlier this week.