Prize winners and members of the Jury
2004
1st Prize: Gustavo Dudamel (Venezuela)
2nd Prize: Ivo Venkov (Bulgaria)
3rd Prize: Oksana Lyniv (Ukraine)
3rd Prize: Toshihiko Matsunuma (Japan)
4th Prize: not awarded
Special prize by the Alice Rosner Foundation, Montreux, for the best contemporary music interpretation: Lukasz Borowicz (Poland)
The Jury:
Marina Mahler (Patronesse of the Competition and Honorary Member of the Jury), Jonathan Nott (Principal Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony and President of the Jury), Leon Botstein (Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the American Symphony Orchestra), Lawrence Foster (Artistic Director of Orchestra of the Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon), Esa-Pekka Salonen (Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of Los Angeles Philharmonic and Composer), Magnus Lindberg (Composer), Paul Müller (Managing Director and CEO of the Bamberg Symphony), Ernest Fleischmann (Consultant and former Managing Director of the San Francisco Symphony), Rolf Beck (Head of NDR Orchestras and Choir Hamburg and Director of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival), Serge Dorny (General Director of L’Opéra National de Lyon), Peter Pastreich (Consultant), Markus Mayers (Member of the Board of the Bamberg Symphony)
2007
1st Prize: not awarded
2nd Prize: Shi-Yeon Sung (South Korea)
3rd Prize: Benjamin Shwartz (USA)
4th Prize: Ewa Strusinska (Poland)
Special Encouragement Award: Yoel Gamzou (USA)
The Jury:
Marina Mahler (Patronesse of the Competition and Honorary Member of the Jury), Jonathan Nott (Principal Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony and President of the Jury), Herbert Blomstedt (Honorary Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony), Hans Graf (Principal Conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra), Mark-Anthony Turnage (Composer), Paul Müller (Managing Director and CEO of the Bamberg Symphony), Rolf Beck (Head of NDR Orchestras and Choir Hamburg and Director of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival), Serge Dorny (General Director of L’Opéra National de Lyon), Ernest Fleischmann (Consultant and former Managing Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic), Peter Pastreich (Consultant and former Managing Director of the San Francisco Symphony), Christian Dibbern (Member of the Board of the Bamberg Symphony)
2010
1st Prize: Ainārs Rubiķis (Latvia)
2nd Prize: Aziz Shokhakimov (Uzbekistan)
3rd Prize: Yordan Kamdzhalov (Bulgaria)
4th Prize: not awarded
The Jury:
Marina Mahler (Patronesse of the Competition and Honorary Member of the Jury), Jonathan Nott (Principal Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony and President of the Jury), Herbert Blomstedt (Honorary Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony), John Carewe (Conductor), Jonathan Mills (Director of the Edinburgh International Festival and Composer), Matthias Pintscher (Composer and Conductor), Wolfgang Fink (General Manager and CEO of the Bamberg Symphony), Jan Nast (Managing Director of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden), Luuk Godwaldt (Member of the Bamberg Symphony)
2013
1st Prize: Lahav Shani (Israel)
2nd Prize: Tung-Chieh Chuang (Taiwan)
2nd Prize: David Danzmayr (Austria)
3rd Prize: not awarded
4th Prize: not awarded
The Jury:
Marina Mahler (Patronesse of the Competition and Honorary Member of the Jury), Jonathan Nott (Principal Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony and President of the Jury), John Carewe (Conductor), Louwrens Langevoort (Director of the Cologne Philharmonie, Head of ACHT BRÜCKEN Musik für Köln and Managing Director of KölnMusik GmbH), Jonathan Mills (Director of the Edinburgh International Festival and composer), Albert Schmitt (Managing Director of Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen), Markus Stenz (General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Gürzenich-Kapellmeister as well as Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra), Rolf Wallin (Composer), Wolfgang Fink (Managing Director and CEO of the Bamberg Symphony), Christian Dibbern (Member of the Orchestral Board of the Bamberg Symphony)
2016
1st Prize: Kahchun Wong (Singapore)
2nd Prize: Sergey Neller (Russia)
3rd Prize: Valentin Uryupin (Russia)
4th Prize: not awarded
The Jury:
Marina Mahler (Patronesse of the Competition and Honorary Member of the Jury), Jonathan Nott (Principal Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony and President of the Jury), Jiří Bělohlávek (Conductor), John Carewe (Conductor), Barbara Hannigan (Conductor and Singer), Sir Neville Marriner (Conductor), Jörg Widmann (Conductor and Composer), Deborah Borda (President and CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic), Martin Campbell-White (Consultant and Founder of Askonas Holt), Ara Guzelimian (Provost and Dean of The Juilliard School New York), Marcus Rudolf Axt (Managing Director and CEO of the Bamberg Symphony), Boris-Alexander Jusa (Member of the Orchestral Board of Bamberg Symphony)
2020
1st Prize: Finnegan Downie Dear (Great Britain)
2nd Prize: Thomas Jung (Germany)
3rd Prize: Wilson Ng (Hongkong), Harry Ogg (Great Britain), Katharina Wincor (Austria)
4th Prize: not awarded
The Jury:
Marina Mahler (Patronesse of the Competition and Honorary Member of the Jury), Jakub Hrůša (Principal Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony and President of the Jury), Barbara Hannigan (Conductor and Singer), Juanjo Mena (Principal Conductor of the Cincinnati May Festival and Associate Conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra), Lahav Shani (Chief Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director Designate of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra), John Carewe (Conductor), Mark Stringer (Professor for Orchestra Conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna), Miroslav Srnka (Composer), Pamela Rosenberg (former Managing Director and CEO of the Berlin Philharmonic), Martin Campbell-White (Consultant and Founder of Askonas Holt and President of the Mahler Foundation Santa Cruz USA), Ara Guzelimian (Provost and Dean, The Juilliard School, and Artistic Director of the Ojai Music Festival), Marcus Rudolf Axt (Managing Director and CEO of the Bamberg Symphony), Martin Timphus (Member of the Orchestral Board of Bamberg Symphony)
2023
1st Prize: Giuseppe Mengoli (Italy)
2nd Prize: Taichi Fukumura (Japan/USA)
3rd Prize: Georg Köhler (Germany/Austria)
Mahler Foundation Special Award: Kevin Fitzgerald (USA)
The Jury:
Marina Mahler (Patronesse of the Competition and Honorary Member of the Jury), Jakub Hrůša (Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony and President of the Jury), Thomas Hampson (American baritone), Barbara Hannigan (conductor and singer), Juanjo Mena (Principal Conductor of the Cincinnati May Festival), Miroslav Srnka (Czech composer and musicologist, John Storgårds (Finnish conductor), Deborah Borda (President Emerita of the New York Philharmonic), Martin Campbell-White (Consultant at Askonas Holt), John Carewe (British conductor and teache), Ara Guzelimian (Artistic director of the Ojai Music Festival), Pamela Rosenberg (former artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic), Mark Stringer (Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna), Marcus Rudolf Axt (Artistic Director of the Bamberg Symphony), Mayra Budagjan (Member of the Orchestra Board of the Bamberg Symphony)
2026
1st Prize: not awarded
2nd Prize: Jakub Przybycień (Poland)
3rd Prize: Sieva Borzak (Italiy)
3rd Prize: Simon Clausse (France)
The Jury:
Marina Mahler (Patronesse of the Competition and Honorary Member of the Jury), Jakub Hrůša (Bamberg Symphony chief conductor and jury president), Thomas Adés (British composer, conductor and pianist), John Carewe (British conductor and teacher), Sian Edwards (British conductor and teacher), Pablo Heras-Casado (Spanish conductor, former director of Granada Festival), John Storgårds (Finnish conductor and violinist), Mauro Bucarelli (Artistic Administrator Accademia Nazionale
di Santa Cecilia), Martin Campbell-White (consultant to Askonas Holt), Ara Guzelimian (director of the
Ojai Music Festival), Marcus Rudolf Axt (President and CEO of Bamberg Symphony), Nina Junke (Member of the Orchestra Board of the Bamberg Symphony)