For the first time in its 24-year history, the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition has named a female conductor, Elim Chan, its champion. The winner took the crown by conducting the London Symphony Orchestra through Beethoven's overture from Egmont, Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements and the Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade. The competition comes with a prize of £15,000 (from Classical-Music.com).
Chan hails from Hong Kong and now lives in Britain but studied music at the University of Michigan, where she conducted the University of Michigan Campus Philharmonia and later the Michigan Pops Orchestra. She also worked with other esteemed conductors including Gustav Meier, Colin Metters and Marin Alsop.
Twenty conductors took part in this year's competition, which haws whittled down to three finalists: Chan, Estonian Mihhail Gerts and Jiří Rožeň of the Czech Republic.
It's sad to note that Chan is the first female in the competition's history but hopefully this first victory will turn the tides and lend support to women in the classical music community. Especially interesting to note when considering the dearth of women winners is that the competition was founded almost solely by Donatella Flick, an Ossetian princess and former Olympic gymnast who surely must have some degree of support for women's equality.
Oh well. Save the politics for later. For now, congratulations to Chan and hopefully a fruitful career at the podium.
Her prize also includes the opportunity to work as an assistant conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra for the next year, alongside primary conductor Valery Gergiev and the rest of the staff and visiting conductors during 2015.