Hungarian conductor Gabor Kali has won Hong Kong’s first international orchestra conducting competition.
Kali triumphed folllowing three rounds of performances against 15 contestants from around the world, and received top marks from a jury headed by Yip Wing-sie, music director of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.
The competition drew 310 applications from 49 countries and regions around the globe and is one of the most prestigious competiitons of its kind.
“This is happiness for me. I’d say the music work I have pursued all my life has now been recognised,” Kali said, according to the South China Morning Post.
Kali, a graduate of the world renowned Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, received a 150,000 Hong Kong dollar cash prize (close to 5,000,000 HUF) and a future opportunity to conduct with the Sinfonietta orchestras in Taiwan and Germany.