News Release
Cleveland Orchestra Executive Director Gary Hanson
to Join the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival
Young Conductors Award Jury in 2012
Prestigious panel awards cash prize and Salzburg Festival concert performance
Release date: October 7, 2011
Photo by Roger Mastroianni
Cleveland Orchestra Executive Director Gary Hanson will join the jury for the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award in 2012. He joins a panel of 13 jurors invited to participate, including Chairman Ingo Metzmacher and American baritone Thomas Hampson.
The Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award was created in 2010 as an initiative of Nestlé and the Salzburg Festival under the patronage of Pierre Boulez. The competition aims to give career momentum to highly talented young conductors. German conductor David Afkham (who made his Cleveland Orchestra debut at Blossom Music Center in July 2011) was the first prize-winner in 2010, and Ainars Rubikis from Latvia won the award in 2011.
In 2012, the three final candidates will each conduct a concert during the Award Concert Weekend on April 28 and 29 in the famous Felsenreitschule in Salzburg. In three public concerts, the partner orchestras of the weekend will be the Camerata Salzburg, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and the Munich Radio Orchestra and they will each feature a young, international soloist. The prize of € 15,000 is awarded annually to a conductor ages 22 to 35. The prize-winner nominated at the end of the Award Concert Weekend will conduct their first concert at the Salzburg Festival on August 12, 2012.
“I am honored to join my distinguished colleagues on the jury for the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award, and to have this unique chance to discover and promote the best among the next generation of orchestral conductors,” said Gary Hanson.
Ingo Metzmacher, chairman of the jury, explained, “In order to be a good conductor, many years of experience with orchestras and their musicians are needed. My colleagues on the jury and myself are looking forward to becoming acquainted with young promising conductors and of selecting one to receive the distinction of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award.”
The jury of the “Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award” 2012
- Pierre Boulez (patron)
- Ingo Metzmacher (chairman of the jury)
- Peter Alward (executive director of the Salzburg Easter Festival)
- Andreas Bausdorf (deputy managing director of the German Orchestra Association)
- Albena Danilova (violinist, leader of the Vienna Philharmonic)
- Thomas Hampson (baritone)
- Gary Hanson (executive director of The Cleveland Orchestra)
- Christoph Lieben-Seutter (general manager of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg)
- Brian McMaster (former director of the Edinburgh International Festival)
- Alexander Meraviglia-Crivelli (general secretary of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra)
- Alexander Pereira (artistic director of the Salzburg Festival)
- Aribert Reiman (composer)
- Matthias Schulz (head of the concert planning office and media representative of the board of directors of the Salzburg Festival. Artistic director and managing director designate of the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation)
Gary Hanson
Gary Hanson became the eighth Executive Director of The Cleveland Orchestra in 2004. Under his leadership, the Orchestra has developed an innovative business model that diversifies its activities both at home in Northeast Ohio and around the globe.
Under Gary Hanson’s direction, the Orchestra has partnered with leading Northeast Ohio institutions, such as the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Play House, and further developed the Orchestra’s Artist-in-Residence program to include bringing Baroque music specialists among other distinguished guests to Cleveland.
Mr. Hanson has guided the development of the Orchestra’s Residency program, beginning with a long-term relationship in Miami that reaches a broad constituency through concert performances, collaborations with community partners in education and the arts, and innovations such as the presentation of chamber music in a cabaret setting. With Franz Welser-Möst, Mr. Hanson has established continuing residencies in Vienna and Lucerne and a new multi-year relationship with the Lincoln Center Festival in New York. The forward-looking residency model contributes to the educational and cultural life of communities in Northeast Ohio and beyond, while simultaneously broadening the base of support for the Orchestra as part of its strategic plan to achieve institutional stability and growth.
Mr. Hanson was born in Toronto and studied music at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, completing his studies in double bass performance at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf, Germany. Before joining the staff of The Cleveland Orchestra in 1988 as Director of Marketing and Public Relations, he served as marketing and public relations director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. From 1997 to 2004, he served as The Cleveland Orchestra’s Associate Executive Director.
Mr. Hanson serves on the Board of Trustees of University Circle, Incorporated, and on the Board of the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture. He was a member of the 2001 class of Leadership Cleveland, and he is a recipient of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Distinguished Service Award, presented by the Trustees of the Musical Arts Association to honor exemplary service. Mr. Hanson also serves as a board member of the Toronto-based Glenn Gould Foundation.
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