Finalists

The 20 conductors taking part are:
Felix Benati, France
Jooyoung Chang, Austria
Giovanni Conti, Italy
Riley Court-Wood, United Kingdom
Matteo Dal Maso, Italy
Nina Haug, Switzerland
Daniel Hogan, United Kingdom
Piotr Jaworski, Poland
Maria Keller, Germany
Ingunn Korsgård Hagen, Norway
Leonhard Kreutzmann, Germany
Julia Kurzydlak, Poland
Kingsley Lin, United Kingdom
Jacob Niemann, Germany
Alison Norris, United Kingdom
Friedrich Praetorius, Germany
Roman Reshetkin, France
Matthew Rhodes, United Kingdom
Konstantinos Terzakis, Greece
Andreas van Tol , Sweden

>Meet the 20 finalists who will be taking part in 2025

The Competition

The 18th Donatella Flick Conducting Competition will take place at LSO St Luke's in London on Tuesday 2 to Thursday 4 December 2025.

The competition is open to conductors who are aged 30 or under who are citizens of the UK, countries having full membership of the European Union, Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein or Switzerland.

From the applications received, 20 conductors have been selected by a panel to enter Round 1 of the competition, which takes place with the London Symphony Orchestra at LSO St Luke's.

After the first day of competition a Jury selects ten of these for Round 2. From these, three finalists will be chosen after the second day for the Final Round.

Prize

The winner is awarded £15,000 by Donatella Flick and will have the opportunity to become Assistant Conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra for up to one year.

During this time with the LSO the successful conductor will work with the LSO’s Principal and guest conductors on the preparation of concerts, often on the assessment of new scores, take part in the LSO’s education and outreach programme, LSO Discovery, accompany the orchestra on tour and, should the opportunity arise, conduct the LSO in concert.

Repertoire

Round 1 (Quarter-final)
Tuesday 2 December 2025

JOSEPH HAYDN Symphony No 103
FRANZ SCHUBERT Symphony No 5
GRAŻYNA BACEWICZ Concerto for String Orchestra*

>Click here for the order of appearance of conductors on Day 1

Round 2 (Semi-final)
Wednesday 3 December 2025

RICHARD STRAUSS Oboe Concerto
RICHARD STRAUSS Horn Concerto No 2
JAMES MACMILLAN Symphony No 2
SALLY BEAMISH The Day Dawn (for string orchestra)

Competition Final
Thursday 4 December 2025

VERDI Overture: I Vespri Siciliani
JOHANNES BRAHMS Symphony No 2 (Movs 1,2 & 4)
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Scheherazade (Nos 1,2 & 4)

Jury

Sir Antonio Pappano (Jury Chair) LSO Chief Conductor
Sarah Quinn LSO Chair
Sian Edwards Conductor
Sir James MacMillan Composer
Rachel Gough LSO Principal Bassoon
Thomas Søndergård Conductor

*Concerto for String Orchestra and other works by Grażyna Bacewicz are published by PWM Edition.