Editia VII, 2016

Chang was originally from Chinese Orchestra and how he is the rising star as a conductor. His story is inspiring. Chang, now 30, was born and raised in Peng Hu. It wasn’t until high school that his music teacher found his talent in music. He later entered the Department of Music and studied Traditional Chinese. Professor Apo Hsu discovered his potential in conducting and Chang went to Hochschule fuer Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin to study orchestra conducting.

During his years in Germany, he has worked with Frankfurt Staatsorchester and Brandenburg Sinfoniker. In 2014, he was chosen as representative of HfM Berlin to join the Deutsche Hochschulewettbewerb Orchesterdirigieren. Last year, Chang worked with Konzerthausorchester Berlin and in the same year, he made it to the finalists of Besangon International Competition for Young Conductors. This year, he did pretty well, too. For Chang, the best thing for joining the competition is not the prize but the faith to believe in music. Now, there are 2 orchestra inviting him to conduct for the next year. He will continue his path. No pain, no gain. Chang said he had frustration before, but “I know that I couldn’t give up on music, that’s why I will keep working on it.”

Despite his young age, Simon Proust has already had many successful experiences as a conductor. Second prize of the International Conducting Competition George Enesco in Bucharest and Talent ADAMI chef d’orchestre 2016, his career is starting in France and abroad. His passion for orchestral music manifests itself through his sensitive and energetic conducting of a large variety of musical styles.

Simon Proust started his musical education as a percussionist. He entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris. He completed his conducting studies with a master diploma in June 2015. Simon Proust’s musicianship has been influenced by personalities like Alain Altinoglu, David Zinman, Pascal Rophé, Susanna Mälkki, Peter Eötvos and Bernard Haitink.

During the season 2015-2016, his career started in France with different institutions: Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Opéra National de Lorraine and Orchestre Symphonique Région-Centre Tours. In February 2016, he won the Leverhulme Conducting Fellowship and he joined the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland to work with the students and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Nodoka Okisawa graduated from the conducting division of the Tokyo University of the Arts music department at the top of her class. Upon graduation, she received the Acanthus music and vocal awards, and is currently enrolled in the University’s graduate school. Ms. Okisawa has studied conducting under Yoshikazu Tanaka, Yoko Matsuo, Tadaaki Otaka and Ken Takaseki, and has taken master classes from Michiyoshi Inoue, Tatsuya Shimono and Peter Gülke.

In each class, she was selected as an outstanding student and conducted orchestras. She attended the 19th Affinis Music Festival as a conducting researcher, and was a conducting researcher with the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa from 2011 to 2012.

Helmuth Reichel Silva was born in 1983 in Santiago, Chile. He started to play violin at the age of five, attending the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Santiago, moving later to Germany in 2002. During this period he received several prizes and scholarships, such as the “Fondo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes”. After finishing his violin studies in Würzburg with Soloist-Diploma, he joined the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker and later the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen at the Musiktheater im Revier Gelsenkirchen. During this time he was able to collect invaluable experience as an orchestra musician both in symphony and opera, working with conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Jonathan Nott, Hannu Lintu and Michael Sanderling, before going into conducting with Per Borin at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart and Sebastian Tewinkel at the Musikhochschule Trossingen, where he finished his musical training. He attended courses by Jorma Panula, Yuji Yuasa, Rodolfo Fischer, Bruno Weil and Yuuko Amanuma. Helmuth Reichel Silva was laureate of the Dirigentenpodium Baden-Württemberg Conducting Program, which gives young conductors the opportunity to work with leading orchestras in Germany.

Helmuth Reichel Silva has conducted orchestras such as the SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Orchestre Victor Hugo Franche-Comté, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Oltenia Filarmonica, Georg Enescu Philharmonic, Kammerphilharmonie Graubünden, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen and Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester. He has also collaborated with the Landesjugendorchester Nordrhein-Westfalen and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. From 2014 until 2016 he was Chief Conductor of the Sinfonieorchester der Katholische Hochschulgemeinde Freiburg.

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