Jan Latham-Koenig wins Golden Mask Award

Following on from Novaya Opera's successful UK debut with their performances of Borodin's Prince Igor conducted by the company's artistic director Jan Latham-Koenig, it has been announced that Latham-Koenig has won The Golden Mask Award for Best Conductor for the company's 2013 production of Tristan und Isolde. The Golden Mask Awards are the Russian theatre awards for outstanding achievement in drama, opera, operetta and musicals, ballet, contemporary dance and puppet theatre; the awards were established in 1995. Of the 16 Best Opera Conductor awards bestowed since 1995, only one other non-Russian has ever been awarded. The Moscow music critic, Pyotr Pospelov wrote in Vedomosti that Jan Latham-Koenig "conquered the jury with a powerful reading [of the score]."


Jan Latham-Koenig is Principal Conductor and Head of Artistic Direction of Novaya Opera and is the first British born conductor to hold such a major role at any Russian opera company.(See my review of the company's production of Prince Igor)