Out of 189 applicants from 30 countries, ten young conducting talents were invited to the Philharmonie Berlin as finalists in the three-day conducting competition for the Siemens Conductors Scholarship. Three reached the finals, during which two winners were chosen. One of them is Christian Blex: “For me, winning the Siemens Conductors Scholarship is a dream come true,” he says. Christian Blex received a scholarship for the two-year training period at the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker. In addition to a position as assistant to chief conductor Kirill Petrenko in concerts and opera performances, the training period also includes leading his own projects with the Karajan Academy. Christian Blex is also currently studying conducting with Ole Kristian Ruud at the Norwegian Academy of Music. As an exchange student, he attended Johannes Schlaefli’s classes at the Zurich University of the Arts and studied with Nicolás Pasquet at the Franz Liszt University of Music in Weimar. Christian Blex has worked as a conductor with Leipzig’s Gewandhausorchester and the Bergische Symphoniker. He has conducted the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in master classes. In 2020, he was selected as assistant conductor of the British Youth Opera and also assists with other orchestras, opera companies and ensembles. Blex recently stepped in at short notice for Daniel Harding at a concert of the Karajan Academy at the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt.

“Camilla Tilling knows how to shine” (Berliner Morgenpost). The Swedish singer has appeared as a guest on the world’s leading opera, concert and festival stages for more than two decades and is praised for her “beguiling tone and unfailing musicality” (Gramophone). Her wide-ranging repertoire includes celebrated Mozart roles such as the Countess (The Marriage of Figaro) and Pamina (The Magic Flute) as well as unfamiliar roles, including Dorinda (Handel’s Orlando), the Governess (The Turn of the Screw by Britten) and Donna Clara (Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg). She became known internationally in particular as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier). Camilla Tilling made her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Handel’s Messiah in December 2007 and has appeared regularly with the orchestra since then. She was heard in several concerts with Sir Simon Rattle, for example, in performances of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and in Peter Sellars’s acclaimed productions of Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions. She also enjoyed a long-standing collaboration with Bernard Haitink, who invited her to appear in his legendary final concert at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Camilla Tilling’s artistry is documented not least on numerous recordings, including Haydn’s The Creation with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink as well as lieder and arias by Mozart, Strauss, and Schubert.