Hungarian conductor wins international title

Online daily Fidelio reports that the Hungarian conductor Gábor Káli proved to be the best out of 310 representatives of 49 countries at the first Hong Kong International Conducting Competition. Both the jury and the orchestra agreed that the 35-year-old Hungarian’s talent is admirable.

“This is such a joyous moment for me. At last, all that hard work that I’ve invested in music and all those years are recognised” – said Gábor Káli after the finals. As the winner of the competition, Gábor won 150 thousand Hong Kong Dollars (a little over 15 500 EUR), and he has the chance to debut conducting the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and symphonic orchestras from Taiwan and Germany.

Antoine Glatard (France) placed second, and David Runtz (Poland) placed third.

Gábor was conducting Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in the final round, which the Hungarian musician describes as

‘the art piece of fight, joy and victory’.

He believes that the preparedness of the Asian musicians’ is very much like that of the musicians’ from Central Europe, which made this event much more joyous for him. All three finalists conducted the November Leonids, composed by the Hong Kong local composer Chan Hing-yan.

The members of the final’s orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, took part in the voting too, who argued that Káli’s work is clear, precise and effective. The soloist of Chopin’s II piano concerto, Colleen Lee Ka-ling, said that

the composer could easily get a grasp of the piece and could present his concept to the orchestra easily.

The Hong Kong International Conducting Competition was organised for the first time, with the director of the orchestra, Yip Wing-sie stating that this was a milestone in the city’s musical history.

Featured image: gaborkali.com

Source: fidelio.hu