Llíria is ready to seek the heir to the Hungarian Levente Török, brilliant winner of the first IOCC 2021. The second edition of the International Orchestra Conducting Competition “Llíria City of Music” starts on July 17th with 25 candidates from 13 different nationalities. The event, organized by the Llíria City Council in collaboration with the Spanish Association of Orchestra Conductors (AESDO), in addition to an important economic incentive, offers the winner the chance to conduct some of the best national and international orchestras during the seasons 2025/26 and 2026/27.
Llíria, UNESCO Creative City of Music, will once more become “the centre of international music, thanks to a competition that rewards the talent, effort and perseverance of young people,” explained the mayor of Llíria, Joanma Miguel. “We hope that the candidates enjoy the competition and also the audience that will be able to attend and listen to the different phases of the competition.”
The competition of the second edition will begin on July 18th with four qualifying rounds that will serve to choose the best young conductor on the international scene and will continue until July 22nd with the final. “We maintain the structure that worked so well in the last edition, and the thoroughness remains the same,” says the Councillor for Culture, Mª José Llopis. “We have suggested a repertoire of the highest level, a challenge for the participants, and we have a jury made up of leading professionals,” she added.
The 25 candidates will face pieces by Schönberg, Beethoven, Haydn or Tchaikovsky, among others. Their work will be assessed by a jury chaired by the edetano and former director of the Orquestra de València, Manuel Galduf, who will be accompanied by Virginia Martínez, chief and artistic director of the Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia; Filipe Cunha, chief conductor of the Braga Philharmonic Orchestra (Portugal); Andrés Ascanio, musical academic director of El Sistema of Venezuela; and Cristóbal Soler, artistic director of the competition.
Furthermore, the final phase on Saturday 22nd will have José María Moreno, chief and artistic director of the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra; Víctor López, chief and artistic director of the Andalusia Symphony Orchestra; Manuel Herrero, deputy artistic director of the RTVE Orchestra; Jaume Gavilán, artistic agent of the ADDA-Symphony Orchestra of Alicante; and Vicent Ros, managing director of the Orquestra de València.
Top international level candidates
The 25 finalist batons have been selected from among the more than 120 people under 35 years of age who submitted their applications. 64% are foreigners, of nationalities as diverse as France, the United States, Japan, China, Argentina or Korea.
They are: Sieva Borzak (Italy); Lorena Escolar, Rafael Grau, Daniel Huertas, Daniel Martínez, Marcel Ortega, Pablo Pegalajar, Eros Quesada, Bernat Quetglas, Daniel Ros (Spain); Scott Gentile, Sasha Scolnik-Brower (United States); Oren Gross-Thaler (Israel); Daniel Joseph (United Kingdom), Hae Lee (Korea); Maximilian Leinekugel (Germany); Brian Liao, Chi-Yuan Lin (China); Alexander Marinesku (Russia); Jakub Montewka (Poland); Clément Nonciaux (France); Riku Otamoto, Tatsuma Takahashi (Japan); Fernando Palomeque (Argentina); y Clara Wagsteiner (Austria).
Collaborating orchestras
The competition distributes 8,500 euros in economic prizes. 5,000 of them will go to the winner who, in addition, will have the opportunity to be invited to conduct the following groups: Orquesta Sinfónica de Radio Televisión Española, Orquestra de València, Orquesta Sinfónica de El Sistema de Venezuela, ADDA-Simfònica Alicante, Orquesta de Extremadura, Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga, Symphony Orchestra of the Region de Murcia, Oviedo Filarmonía, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada and Orquesta Sinfónica de Andalucía.
