Nodoka Okisawa
(c)( Yves Petir/Festival de musique Besançon
The 56th Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors ended on Saturday 21 September with Nodoka Okisawa (32, Japan) winning the 2019 Grand Prix de Direction as well as the Coup de cœur du public and the Coup de cœur de l’orchestre.
She is the first woman to win the Grand Prix since Silvia Massarelli in 1993.
French conductor Victor Jacob, 28, received a Special Mention from the jury.
Nodoka Okisawa studied at the University of Arts in Tokyo and at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. She was chosen as a student at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Foundation and studied with Kurt Masur. She won the First Prize at the 18th Tokyo International Conducting Music Competition and the 3rd prize at the 7th Bucharest International Conducting Competition Jeunesses Musicales.
