Alumnus Tung-Chieh Chuang conducting at CCM.
CCM alumnus Tung-Chieh Chuang (MM Orchestral Conducting, 2009) was one of two second prize winners at the seventh Sir Georg Solti International Conductors’ Competition in Frankfurt this February. Chuang took second prize for his incredible conducting of the concert version of Leonard Bernstein‘s Overture to Candide. German conductor Elias Grandy also took a second prize award. No first prize was awarded.
Chuang was also awarded the competition’s Audience Prize, which was given for the first time in the history of the competition. Audiences were invited to vote on their favorite competitor and Chuang was the clear winner with a vote of more than 59%. Chuang was presented with an original Sir Georg Solti baton from his Frankfurt era and also received 10,000 Euro for his second prize award.
In addition, Chuang will be invited to conduct concerts with Frankfurter Opern- und Museum sorchester and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. Further orchestras such as Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, and Polish Chamber Symphony Sopot, may offer guest engagement or assistance positions.
The Solti Conductor’s Competition was organized as Solti saw an urgent need to create a forum where young talents can present themselves and receive competent assessment of the standards they have reached.
367 young conductors aged between 19 and 35 years from 64 countries applied to this year’s competition. Of those 367, 20 applicants were invited to Frankfurt to participate in the first round and semifinal held from February 17-20, where they conducted the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Frankfurter Opern-und Museumsorchester.
You can view the announcement of this year’s competition results here.
About Tung-Chieh Chuang
Prize winner at the Gustav Mahler Competition Bamberg and the Jeunesses Musicales Bucharest International Conducting Competition, Taiwan-born conductor Tung-Chieh Chuang displayed musical talent at a young age. Born in a family of musicians, Chuang learned to play piano and horn and had his first concerto appearance at age of 11.
Since winning the Mahler Competition in 2013, Chuang has attracted numerous world-wide engagements. Hailed for his command of musical tones and structures and rich palette of expressions, Chuang has worked with Die 12 Cellisten der Berliner Philharmoniker, Bamberger Symphoniker, Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bermen, National Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan), Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Jenaer Philharmonie, Filarmonica George Enescu, Filarmonica de Stat Sibiu, Severočeské filharmonie Teplice, among others.
In 2010, Chuang was the recipient of the Edwin B. Garrigues fellowship at Curtis Institute of Music. That same year he co-organized the Curtis Japan Benefit Concert in Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia, where all proceeds were donated to Red Cross Japan for the 311 earthquake relief. In 2012, he organized the first-ever orchestra-flashmob performance in Taiwan, in which he led the National Taiwan University Symphony Orchestra as their principal conductor.
Learn more about CCM’s award-winning alumni by visiting ccm.uc.edu/about/villagenews/alumni.
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