Presentation: Anthi Savaki
Simon Edelmann
Simon Edelmann is currently working as a freelance conductor. He studied with Prof. Nicolas Pasquet and Prof. Ekhart Wycik at the Hochschule fur Musik Franz Liszt Weimar and with Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr at the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Hamburg, where he graduated with a concert performance degree with honors in 2024. He has already performed with renowned orchestras such as Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Symphoniker Hamburg, Staatskapelle Weimar, Musikalische Komodie Leipzig, Niederrheinische Sinfoniker and the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra, which immediately invited him back for another production. As a scholarship holder of the Ernst Boehe Academy from 2020 to 2022, he served as Assistant Conductor of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and its Principal Conductor Michael Francis. Since 2022, Simon Edelmann has been a scholarship holder of the Forum Dirigieren of the German Music Council. Last season, this led him to the Saarland Radio Symphony Orchestra, to the Critical Orchestra Berlin and to the Hofer Symphoniker.
Simon Edelmann first attracted attention in international competitions when he won the Silver Medal of the Antal Dorati International Conduction Competition in Budapest in September 2021. One of his most recent successes was winning 1st prize and the orchestra prize at the 3rd International Conducting Competition University of Almeria, in December 2023.
Oliver Cope
Oliver Cope is a 25-year-old British conductor studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Having graduated from Clare College, University of Cambridge, he has worked with orchestras and opera companies across the United Kingdom and Europe, and has studied with prominent conductors including Martyn Brabbins, Ryan Bancroft, Jonathon Heyward, Ryan Wigglesworth and Antony Hermus.
Oliver was the winner of the 6th International Athens Conducting Competition and will return to Greece next season to conduct the Athens Philharmonia Orchestra. He placed 2
nd at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Calleva Competition and has been selected as one of 6 conductors across Europe to take part in the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Emerging Conductor Showcase. Since being in Glasgow, Oliver has conducted a number of professional ensembles, including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, the Red Note Ensemble, and the RCS Symphony Orchestra. Professionally, he has worked as an assistant with the RSNO and NSO Dublin and has recorded contemporary works for the Delphian label. Oliver has also worked as a conductor /repetiteur at the Waterperry Opera Festival, St Paul’s Opera, and Grimeborn.
Alongside conducting, Oliver has won several national awards for his performances as both a harpist and a pianist.
Sergey Akimov
Sergey Akimov was born in 1989, in Moscow and had his first conducting lessons at the age of 13. In 2011, he became a student at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he studied under Gennady Rozhdestvensky and graduated with honors. During his student years, he assisted conductors such as Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Jurowsky and others.
After his graduation, he was invited to the Moscow Operetta Theatre, where he conducted classical masterpieces (Die Fledermaus, Die Lustige Witwe), as well as modern musicals. In 2018, he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival as a finalist of the Nestle & Salzburg Young Conductors Award with the Camerata Salzburg. In 2019, Sergey was appointed conductor at the Studio For New Music – a world-renowned ensemble, specializing on avant-garde performances. Sergey Akimov gave numerous Russian premieres of contemporary compositions as well as the first performance of Gershwin’s one-act opera Blue Monday and a chamber arrangement of Le Sacre du Printemps by Stravinsky. He has created various arrangements, including versions of symphonic works for chamber orchestra such as “Petrushka” by Stravinsky, “Jazz-suite No. 2” by Shostakovich and others.