HfMT alumnus wins Korean conducting competition

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Simon Edelmann, HfMT alumnus from Ulrich Windfuhr's conducting class, has won first prize at Korea's only international conducting competition.
The Korean National Symphony Orchestra (KNSO), under the direction of artistic director David Reiland, announced on Sunday that Simon Edelman, who currently conducts the Vogtland Philharmonic Orchestra, has won first prize in the KNSO's second international conducting competition.
Edelmann's performances of the first movement of Brahms' "Symphony No. 4", the third movement of Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances" and the first movement of Debussy's "La Mer" in the final round impressed the jury and secured him first prize.
The jury chairman David Reiland praised Edelmann as a "skillful and experienced conductor" who had shown "outstanding leadership and understanding of the orchestra".
The competition, which takes place every three years, is one of the most important in its field worldwide.
Several hundred candidates apply worldwide. Particularly pleasing: this year, of the 23 participants in the final round, three students from Ulrich Windfuhr's HfMT conducting class were nominated.

Vita
Simon Edelmann, newly crowned first prize winner at the renowned 2nd KNSO International Conducting Competition, has been conductor of the Vogtland Philharmonie since the 2024/25 season.
In recent years, he has already performed with renowned orchestras such as the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Hamburger Symphoniker, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Musikalische Komödie Leipzig, the Niederrheinische Sinfoniker and the Neubrandenburger Philharmonie, which immediately invited him to conduct another production.
Simon Edelmann has been a scholarship holder of the German Music Council's Conducting Forum since 2022. Last season, this took him to the Saarländischer Rundfunk Orchestra, the Kritisches Orchester Berlin and the Hofer Symphoniker, among others. In 2024, he was also accepted into the concert sponsorship program (formerly "Maestros of Tomorrow") of the Conducting Forum.
He has received several awards at international competitions, including 1st Prize and the Audience Award at the 2nd KNSO International Conducting Competition in November 2024, 3rd Prize at the 16th Dimitri Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition in May 2024 and 1st Prize and the Special Orchestral Prize at the He received his training from Prof. Nicolas Pasquet and Prof. Ekhart Wycik at the Franz Liszt School of Music in Weimar and with Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama, where he passed his concert exam with distinction in 2024.
. As a scholarship holder of the Ernst Boehe Academy from 2020 to 2022, he worked as Assistant Conductor of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and its Principal Conductor Michael Francis.