Internationally significant competition success for HfMT alumna

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The Israeli and HfMT alumna Bar Avniwho completed her Master's degree at the HfMT in Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr's conducting class in 2018, has won the international competition for female conductors "La Maestra". The 34-year-old prevailed against the other two finalists on the podium of the Philharmonie de Paris in Paris. Katharina Morin from Germany and Liubov Nosova from Russia were also in the final round. The "La Maestra" competition was launched in 2020. At the time, a survey revealed that only 4 percent of conducting positions were held by women. The proportion is now 8 percent.

Below are a few voices from the HfMT on this internationally significant success:

HfMT President Prof. Dr. Jan Philipp Sprick:
"The great competition success of our graduate Bar Avni shows once again the outstanding level of conducting training in Hamburg in Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr's class, where the presence of women has been the norm for many years."

Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr:
"The HFMT offers the young conductors who are accepted by us exceptional practical conducting opportunities developed over years of work, which make the transition into successful professional life as natural as possible. I am happy about that."

Vita
Bar Avni grew up in Israel and learned to play the drums from the age of eight, initially becoming a classical percussionist. She later turned to classical music. After completing her military service, which is also compulsory for women in Israel, she began studying music at Tel Aviv University (Buchman-Mehta School of Music) in 2009, where she studied orchestral conducting and was taught by Yoav Talmi. Following her Bachalor degree in Tel Aviv, she moved to Europe and continued her studies with Martin Sieghart at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. Here she gained her first experience as conductor of the Grazer Bläservielharmonie (symphonic wind orchestra of the Graz universities) from 2015 to 2016. In 2017 she moved to the University of Music and Drama in Hamburg with Ulrich Windfuhr and completed her master's degree there in 2018. In 2017, she took over conducting courses for composers at the University of Music and Drama and became a lecturer at the Freie Musikakademie für Studium, Konzert und Forschung in Hamburg.
Bar Avni has been a fellow of the International Kurt Masur Institute since 2021. Also in 2021, she became the first woman principal conductor in the history of the Bayer Philharmonic Orchestra and at the same time received a scholarship (stARTacademy) from the Bayer Cultural Foundation of Bayer AG from 2022.
Bar Avni's conducting appearances have included the 2016 Tyrolean Festival in Erl, Israel (Israel Chamber Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Haifa Symphony Orchestra) and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg with the Hamburg Camerata in 2021.