Double success in Cologne
Weimar conducting graduate Henri Christofer Aavik wins the German Conducting Award
Graduates of the "Weimar Conducting Forge" enjoyed double success at the German Conducting Award: In the final concert on Monday evening, October 20, at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, Henri Christofer Aavik from Estonia impressed the jury and won the first prize worth €15,000, as well as the Kurt Masur Audience Award worth €3,000.
The third prize, worth €5,000, also went to an alumnus of the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar, Friedrich Praetorius (Germany). The second prize (€10,000) was won by Luis Toro Araya from Chile.
“This is the first time that two of the three prize winners of one of the most important international conducting prizes now come from our Institute for Conducting and Opera Coaching,” says Weimar conducting professor Ekhart Wycik. In recent competitions, Weimar conducting alumni Claudio Novati won third prize (2023), Martijn Dendievel won first prize (2021), and Dominik Beykirch won second prize (2017).
“The highlight and special feature of the competition lies in its unique requirements profile: only the German Conducting Prize weighs and evaluates symphony and opera equally,” said Wycik, who traveled to Cologne especially for the final.
The final concert at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, featuring works from Mozart to Stravinsky, was preceded by a week-long competition. Twelve conductors from around the world were selected from 234 applicants to participate, working with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, and singers from the Cologne Opera during the competition rounds.
The first prize includes engagements with the WDR Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Cologne Opera, Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, Dresden Philharmonic, Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, and Munich Symphony Orchestra.
The German Conducting Award took place for the fifth time from October 14 to 20 as an international competition for concert and opera conducting. Previously, it had been organized as the “German Conducting Prize” for scholarship holders of the German Music Council's Conducting Forum since 1995. The recording of the final concert will be broadcast on Wednesday, October 22, 2025, at 8:03 p.m. as an “ARD Concert.”
Estonian-born conductor Henri Christofer Aavik is the second prize winner of the 5th International E. Svetlanov Competition (2022) and first prize winner of the 8th International J. Panula Competition (2021). In recent seasons, Aavik has made his debut with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, the North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, the Bergische Symphoniker, and the Israel Camerata Jerusalem. In September 2024, he took up the position of principal conductor of the Pärnu City Orchestra (Estonia).
Since 2020, he has been a regular guest at the Estonian National Opera. At a young age, Aavik attended Prof. Jorma Panula's conducting courses in Finland. He later studied at the FRANZ LISZT University of Music in Weimar with Prof. Nicolás Pasquet and Prof. Ekhart Wycik, in Switzerland at the ZHdK with Prof. Johannes Schlaefli, and in the national master's program at the conservatories in Amsterdam and The Hague with Jac van Steen, Ed Spanjaard, and Kenneth Montgomery.
Friedrich Praetorius has been Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper Berlin since this season. Previously, he held the same position at the German National Theater in Weimar and at the Theater Chemnitz. He is a multiple first prize winner, including the 10th Conducting Competition for Opera Conductors in Orvieto, the 11th Conducting Competition of the Central German Music Academies, and the 2021 International Conducting Competition at the University of Almería. Since 2023, he has been both principal conductor and artistic director of the “SommerMusikAkademie Schloss Hundisburg” festival.
He received his first musical training in the St. Thomas Choir in Leipzig and studied orchestral conducting in the class of Prof. Nicolás Pasquet and Prof. Ekhart Wycik at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar. Practical collaborations have already taken him to the WDR and MDR symphony orchestras, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi.
[October 21, 2025]