Finalists from Portugal, France and UK in 2017 Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award

Nuno Filipe Coelho Silva, Marie Jacquot, Kerem Hasan
©SF/Kolarik

The three finalists have been announced for the 2017 Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award. Marie Jacquot (France, born 1990), Kerem Hasan (Great Britain, born 1992) and Nuno Filipe Coelho Silva (Portugal, born 1989) are three young finalists competing for the 2017 prize, chosen from 67 candidates by a jury chaired by Dennis Russell Davies. The three finalists were chosen from eight candidates the young conductors rehearsed two contemporary compositions each with the österreichisches ensemble für neue musik (œnm). The obligatory piece was Arnold Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1 in E major Op. 9 for 15 solo instruments; for their second piece, candidates were given their choice among the following three works selected by the jury, Goffreo Petrassi's Estri for 15 players, Elliott Carter's Triple Duo for six players and Pierre Boulez's Dérive 1 for 6 instruments.

During the Award Concert Weekend (4-6 August 2017) the three finalists will conduct the Camerata Salzburg at the Mozarteum Foundation, with the concert programmes will be chosen together with the candidates and announced in June 2017,  once again, a particular focus is on contemporary music.


Young British conductor Kerem Hasan, born in London in 1992, studied piano and conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and at the Hochschule für Musik 'Franz Liszt' Weimar. He is currently a student at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste with Johannes Schlaefli. As a finalist of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition 2016, Hasan conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in concert at the Barbican Centre, returning in March 2017 for a further collaboration. Since then he has been appointed Associate Conductor of the Welsh National Opera.