Small sensation
Weimar conducting student Giuseppe Mengoli wins renowned Mahler conducting competition
The Weimar Master's student Giuseppe Mengoli has won the 7th Mahler Conducting Competition of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. The 30-year-old Italian, who studies at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar in the conducting class of Prof. Nicolás Pasquet and Prof. Ekhart Wycik, was awarded 1st prize worth 30,000 euros, ahead of Taichi Fukumura (2nd prize) and Georg Köhler (3rd prize).
In the prize-winners' concert, he will conduct the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in Gustav Mahler's 7th Symphony and Alban Berg's "Seven Early Songs", among others, and a CD recording is also planned for 2024.
"This is a small sensation," his main teacher Prof. Nicolás Pasquet is pleased to say. "This is a fantastic victory for Giuseppe and of course for our university, we are very happy and proud of him. There were hundreds of applicants from all over the world, and just to be among the 20 invited participants was a success - and now this great first prize."
At the same time, more good news reached the "Weimar conducting forge": conducting student Martin Rajna was appointed 1st Kapellmeister of the Budapest Opera, and alumnus Martijn Dendievel signed his contract as the new designated principal conductor of the Hof Symphony Orchestra.
Giuseppe Mengoli was until recently assistant to Lorenzo Viotti at the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands National Opera in Amsterdam. In May 2023 he joined the artistic team of the Orchestre National de France for the new production of "La Bohème" at the Theatre de Champs-Elysees, where he directed the stage rehearsals and assisted Lorenzo Passerini. This summer he will assist at the Salzburg Festival and will work with the SWR Orchestra in the coming season.
In May 2022, Mengoli assisted Lorenzo Viotti in Lisbon with the preparations and conducted the Gulbenkian Orchestra with Schönberg's "Pelleas et Melisande". In October of the same year, he made his debut with the Nederland Kamer Orchestra. When he stepped in at very short notice and with great success for the rehearsal of Beethoven's 5th Symphony with the "Solistes Européen Luxembourg", he was immediately invited back to participate in the orchestra's next projects.
Mengoli's conducting career began at the age of 19 as concertmaster in youth and professional orchestras. Since then he has worked with Oleg Caetani, Daniel Barenboim, Christoph König and John Axelrod with orchestras such as the Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla, Oslo Opera House, LaVerdi Symphony Orchestra and Royal Opera House Covent Garden. In 2018 Giuseppe made his conducting debut with the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester in Bad Schandau.
A winner of several international competitions, he completed his violin studies with the distinction "cum laude" and special mention. In addition to the violin, Giuseppe Mengoli also studied percussion, piano, trumpet as well as jazz and is a composer and arranger. After completing his bachelor's degree in orchestral conducting, he is currently in consecutive master's studies at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar with Prof. Nicolás Pasquet and Prof. Ekhart Wycik, where he regularly works with orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Weimar, the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra and the Thuringia Philharmonic Orchestra Gotha.
[14 July 2023]