Orchestre Note et Bien is one of Paris’ leading community orchestras, noted for its strong ties to charitable organisations which benefit from the proceeds of each concert.

The concerts will be held in Paris on the 14th, 16th and 17th of October.  For more information/reservations, please click here.

The prize recognizes conductors under 35 who are confirmed professionals and residents of France.  Selected by an international jury, the  three laureats will be featured in a public showcase concert, to which agents, festival and orchestra Directors, the media and other members of the artistic community are invited.

Ms. Askren will conduct the Orchestre Colonne at the Salle Gaveau on October 12th, 2010 at 8pm.  She will perform Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony in a program also featuring works by Mozart and Beethoven.

Ms. Askren is honored to be the first American to receive this prize.

For more information concerning the Adami and the « Talents Chefs d’Orchestre » award, please click here.

For reservations, tickets and concert information, please click here.

The feature also presents another finalist candidate, Cornelius Heine, and Wolfgang Fink, General Director of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.

The full story was aired on regional television on March 3rd, and can be viewed on the station’s website by clicking here .

The concerts were held at Paris’ Théâtre 13, and were followed by an interactive question and answer session between the public, the composer and the performers.

Over the course of the residency, Ms. Askren had the opportunity of observing and assisting at rehearsals and sectionals, and benefitted from working on adapting period techniques to modern instruments with a team of renowned and experienced musicians.

Haendel’s celebrated opera, Gulio Cesare in Egitto, is the focus of a comprehensive and multi-purpose artistic project spanning the 2009-10 academic year.  More comprehensive and committed than most educative musical projects in France, the groundbreaking project involves members from all echelons of its music-making community, including professional musicians and choreographers of Opera Fuoco’s orchestra, pre-professional young artists of Opera Fuoco’s troupe unique in France, teachers from selected Yvelines public schools at risk, young students aged from 6 to 8, and their families.

Over the course of the next several months, the Fuoco/Saint Quentin educational team will lead several musical, dramatic, and movement sessions and coachings with the students, while their school teachers explore other facets of the opera in history, art, and literature classes.  There will be artist ateliers presented at the National Theater of Saint Quentin, as well as open masterclasses where the troupe artists will be coached by Opera Fuoco’s Music Director, David Stern, and co-Artistic Director and Coach, viola da gambist Jay Bernfeld.  The project will gain momentum in May, where the students will follow a 10-day intensive residency at the Theater, culminating in a final public performance of the opera including a mixed cast of children, pre-professionals, and professional musicians.

To find out more about « Gulio Cesare in Egitto (et aux Yvelines!) », please visit the Théâtre National de Saint Quentin en Yveline’s official page of the project, or its blog .

Elizabeth Askren was chosen by Maestro Lorin Maazel as one of ten Apprentice Conductors for the inaugural edition of the Castleton Festival in Virginia’s Rappahannock County.   The festival brought together nearly 200 young artists from across the globe to interact across a range of disciplines, with mentoring and performance activities at the highest level.

Over a three week period the apprentices participated in several Master Classes led by Maestro Maazel centered around the repertoire for the two Festival concerts, as well as some opera excerpts, and addressed such topics as What to Listen for While Conducting, Cue Choreography, Musical Structuring, Rehearsal Technique, How to Accompany and The Music Behind the Notes, among others. This unique opportunity allowed young conductors to experience an intensive, interactive program that combines both mentoring and performance activity in the opera and symphonic fields.

The residency for the young conductors culminated with a Lorin Maazel and Rolex Master Classes showcase concert on Thursday, July 16th, featuring a selection of symphonic and operatic repertoire.  Ms. Askren performed the aria « Vissi d’Arte » from Puccini’s Tosca with soprano Jennifer Check.

Elizabeth Askren is one of 12 finalist candidates to compete in the 2010 Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition, to be held in Bamberg, Germany from February 26th to March 5th 2010.  The candidates were chosen from a pool of over 280 applicants from 58 different countries.  The jury consists of internationally renowned conductors, composers and managers, including Mrs. Marina Mahler, patron of the competition and granddaughter of Gustav Mahler.

The third edition of the competition will follow the goal of the previous years: to act as a crucible for new artistic growth.  The competition holds four rounds where the candidates will present their skills to a renowned, international jury in the Bamberg Concert Hall together with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. The first prize includes 20,000 € and the possibility to participate in concerts with internationally renowned orchestras.

The imposed repertoire includes several works by Mahler (Symphony No. 4 and a selection from the songs for voice and orchestra), Haydn (Symphony No. 104 D major Hob. I:104) and Webern (Five Pieces for Orchestra op. 10), as well as two contemporary compositions by Matthias Pintscher (« towards Osiris », 2005) and Jörg Widmann (« Con brio », 2008).

Prizes will be awarded during the final concert on March 5th, 2010 at 7pm. From the semi-finals on (March 3rd) the competition is open to the interested public.