The Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition today announced the twenty young conductors from 9 countries who will compete at the 18th edition of the Competition in December which will see the conductors compete for the £15,000 prize awarded by Donatella Flick and for the opportunity to become Assistant Conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra for up to one year.

The competitors are drawn from the best conductors aged 30 or under who are citizens of the UK; countries having full membership of the European Union; and Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein or Switzerland. The 20 are:

Felix Benati, French
Sieva Borzak, Italian
Jooyoung Chang, Austrian
Giovanni Conti, Italian
Riley Court-Wood, British
Matteo Dal Maso, Italian
Nina Haug, Swiss
Daniel Hogan, British
Piotr Jaworski, Polish
Maria Keller, German
Leonhard Kreutzmann, German
Julia Kurzydlak, Polish
Kingsley Lin, British
Jacob Niemann, German
Alison Norris, British
Friedrich Praetorius, German
Roman Reshetkin, French
Matthew Rhodes, British
Konstantinos Terzakis, Greek
Andreas van Tol, Swedish
Konstantinos Terzakis, Greek
Andreas van Tol, Swedish

The jury is chaired by Sir Antonio Pappano, joined by Sir James MacMillan, Sian Edwards, Thomas Søndergård, Sarah Quinn and Rachel Gough

This year, for the first time, the competition will be filmed for a new Sky Arts series, Making A Maestro, airing in 2026. Produced by Love Monday, the program will capture the competition as it unfolds, following the competitors and judges to demystify the role of the conductor as the 20 finalists vie for the top spot.