Hungarian conductor Gabor Kali triumphs in Hong Kong’s first international battle of the batons
Kali, 35, walks away with HK$150,000 cash prize and future opportunity to conduct with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta
A Hungarian has won Hong Kong’s first international orchestra conducting competition after three rounds of performances against 15 hopefuls from around the world.
Gabor Kali, 35, scored the highest mark from an international jury headed by Yip Wing-sie, music director of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and Christoph Poppen, its principal guest conductor.
The competition, hosted by the Sinfonietta, drew 310 applications from 49 countries and regions.
“This is happiness for me. I’d say the music work I have pursued all my life has now been recognised,” the Franz Liszt Academy graduate said on Sunday after the victory, which came with a HK$150,000 cash prize and a future opportunity to conduct with the Sinfonietta and orchestras in Taiwan and Germany.
Kali came in ahead of Antoine Glatard of France and Dawid Runtz of Poland, who took second and third place respectively. All three performed local composer Chan Hing-yan’s new work November Leonids before their own choice of a full symphony.
