Ammodo Conducting Masterclass 2022 day 3

Fabio Luisi presided over the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s Ammodo Conducting Masterclass on 29 June 2022.

Maestro Luisi shares some of his knowledge and experience with four very talented young conductors, who are each given the chance to conduct the Concertgebouw Orchestra: Holly Choe, Mirian Khukhunaishvili, Earl Lee and Anna Rakitina. The masterclass touches on numerous aspects of the conducting profession as the participants perform Schumann’s Symphony No. 1, Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche and two more recent works – En otra noche, en otro mundo (2020) by Angelica Negrón and Evening Land (2017) by Bent Sørensen. Hans Haffmans is presenting the event.

Holly Choe was born in Seoul and grew up in California. After studying the clarinet and music education, she obtained a master’s degree in wind conducting from the New England Conservatory, going on to study orchestral conducting at the Zurich University of the Arts. Choe has served as assistant conductor to Paavo Järvi with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich since the 2020–21 season. She is the recipient of a Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation and a Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship.

Mirian Khukhunaishvili studied choral conducting in his native Tbilisi. He earned a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Academy of Music in Cracow in 2020, and is a co-founder of the Alter Orchestra and the Tbilisi Youth Orchestra. The Georgian conductor currently lives in Reykjavik, where he holds the post of invited professor of conducting at the Iceland University of the Arts.

Winner of the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award 2022, Earl Lee currently serves as assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, having previously held the positions of associate conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and resident conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The Canadian-Korean musician studied cello at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Juilliard School in New York. He studied conducting with Ignat Solzhenitsyn, going on to obtain a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with George Manahan. He then did post-graduate studies with Hugo Wolff at the New England Conservatory.

Anna Rakitina has served as assistant conductor to Andris Nelsons with the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2019. She was additionally named a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 2019–20 season. Born in Moscow to a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother, Rakitina started out as a violinist and soprano before training as a conductor in Moscow and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg.

Maestro Luisi shares some of his knowledge and experience with four very talented young conductors, who are each given the chance to conduct the Concertgebouw Orchestra: Holly Choe, Mirian Khukhunaishvili, Earl Lee and Anna Rakitina. The masterclass touches on numerous aspects of the conducting profession as the participants perform Schumann’s Symphony No. 1, Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche and two more recent works – En otra noche, en otro mundo (2020) by Angelica Negrón and Evening Land (2017) by Bent Sørensen. Hans Haffmans is presenting the event.

Holly Choe was born in Seoul and grew up in California. After studying the clarinet and music education, she obtained a master’s degree in wind conducting from the New England Conservatory, going on to study orchestral conducting at the Zurich University of the Arts. Choe has served as assistant conductor to Paavo Järvi with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich since the 2020–21 season. She is the recipient of a Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation and a Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship.

Mirian Khukhunaishvili studied choral conducting in his native Tbilisi. He earned a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the Academy of Music in Cracow in 2020, and is a co-founder of the Alter Orchestra and the Tbilisi Youth Orchestra. The Georgian conductor currently lives in Reykjavik, where he holds the post of invited professor of conducting at the Iceland University of the Arts.

Winner of the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award 2022, Earl Lee currently serves as assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, having previously held the positions of associate conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and resident conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. The Canadian-Korean musician studied cello at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Juilliard School in New York. He studied conducting with Ignat Solzhenitsyn, going on to obtain a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with George Manahan. He then did post-graduate studies with Hugo Wolff at the New England Conservatory.

Anna Rakitina has served as assistant conductor to Andris Nelsons with the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2019. She was additionally named a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 2019–20 season. Born in Moscow to a Ukrainian father and a Russian mother, Rakitina started out as a violinist and soprano before training as a conductor in Moscow and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg.