In January 2027, young conductors from around the world will once again converge on Hong Kong for the third Hong Kong International Conducting Competition. Since its first edition in 2018, the competition has established itself as one of Asia’s most significant occasions for up-and-coming conductors, attracting applicants from dozens of countries and producing laureates who have gone on to build international careers.
This edition will be the first to take place since Christoph Poppen assumed the music directorship of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta in 2023. But anyone expecting a dramatic change of direction may be surprised.
“To be honest, I don’t think there are many changes,” Poppen says with characteristic directness. “The last two competitions have always been run together under a sort of joint directorship, artistic leadership between Wing-sie Yip and myself, and we’re doing the same now. The structure is exactly the same as before.”
But that continuity is important. Hong Kong has long been a cultural crossroads, a city where artists, institutions and audiences intersect. For Poppen, the competition reflects precisely that identity. “Hong Kong is a fantastic cultural hub,” he says. “In music and in visual arts too. Sometimes I find there is almost too much going on – we have so many concerts over the year.”
In 2023, the competition received 194 applications from 45 countries and regions. For young conductors from Europe and the Americas, Hong Kong is a gateway to Asia; for Asian conductors, it provides an international stage without requiring a journey halfway around the world.
“It is very attractive to go to Asia, to such an important place as Hong Kong, to compete,” Poppen says.
The competition itself was borne from the need to fill a gap. While Europe hosts several longstanding, prestigious conducting competitions, Asia has relatively few opportunities of comparable stature – aside from Hong Kong, only conducting competitions in Tokyo and Seoul.
“In Europe there have been many conducting competitions founded over the last few decades,” Poppen recalls. “But in Asia this was not the case. This was our general motivation for the first competition.”
Despite only two past editions, the competition has already succeeded in identifying significant musical talent. The list of previous laureates reads like a snapshot of conducting’s emerging generation. In 2023, Venezuelan conductor Rodolfo Barráez captured First Prize, while Taiwanese conductor Yao-Yu Wu took Second Prize – they have since taken up positions with the LA Philharmonic and Kaohsiung Symphony respectively. Other previous participants such as Gábor Káli, Mikhail Mering and Linhan Cui have all developed significant international careers, regardless of where they ultimately placed in the competition rankings.
Indeed, for Poppen, many of the conductors who left lasting impressions were not necessarily prize winners. “In the semi-finals there are sometimes very impressive people who, for some reason, don’t get into the finals,” he explains. “I have engaged conductors who are not prize winners, both here in Germany and at my festival in Portugal, and they have wonderful careers.”
This philosophy reflects a broader understanding of what conducting competitions can accomplish. While audiences naturally focus on winners and prizes, the real value often lies in the relationships and opportunities generated behind the scenes.
Unlike pianists or violinists, conductors rarely encounter one another professionally. Their careers can be solitary, moving from orchestra to orchestra, city to city. “Conducting is a lonely profession,” Poppen says. “We are travelling around the world always by ourselves.”
“Instrumentalists know each other and sometimes play together,” he continues. “But conductors rarely perform together with another conductor. Since the orchestra normally only needs one conductor at a time, most of the time we don’t even meet.”
This reality gives conducting competitions a unique role. “During competitions, it is wonderful for young conductors to get together, to get to know each other,” Poppen says. “To see each other work, to talk and exchange ideas – this is as important as, at the end, hopefully getting a prize.”
For Poppen, one of the greatest misconceptions about competitions is the belief that they are primarily about winning. Having spent years on both sides of the jury table, he sees competitions less as contests and more as opportunities for growth. His advice to prospective applicants is simple: do not enter with the sole objective of securing a prize.
“The first advice I would give any competition contestant – conductors and also instrumentalists – is: don’t go because you want to get a prize.”
Young conductors, he believes, benefit most when they approach a competition as a learning experience rather than a career-defining verdict. The opportunity to work intensively with an orchestra, perform under pressure, observe fellow competitors and receive feedback from experienced musicians can be hugely valuable. Success cannot always be measured by rankings alone. Many participants who fail to reach the final rounds go on to build significant careers, while prize winners sometimes discover that a medal itself guarantees little on its own.
“If you go into a competition saying, ‘I want to get a prize,’ you try to please the jury,” he says. “And for every strong artist, this is a very bad attitude… We can only be persuasive when we do what we really believe in.”
The responsiveness of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta is helpful in demonstrating this, Poppen argues. Recalling repeated performances of Strauss’ Fledermaus overture, “every time it sounded different,” he remembers. “Even the precision was different. One performance might be brilliant, and the next conductor would come and it was not together anymore – yet it is the same orchestra! They really play what the conductor conducts.”
One topic that inevitably arises in discussions of conducting is gender. The profession has changed significantly over the past two decades, with increasing visibility for women conductors and new initiatives specifically designed to support them.
Poppen welcomes the broader participation of women in the field, but resists the notion that conductors should be evaluated differently according to gender. “I’m considering their conducting, not their being female or male,” he says. “You cannot categorise – someone might be stronger in one point or another, but whether they happen to be female or male doesn’t matter to me at all.”
But for all the public scrutiny that accompanies an international competition, many of its most consequential moments occur beyond the concert hall. The jury’s deliberations are confidential, with jurors bound by strict rules not to disclose what takes place in their discussions.
“What happens behind closed doors between the jury will never be public,” Poppen says. “We even have to sign that we won’t talk about what goes on behind the scenes.”
Yet contrary to the stereotype of fierce disagreements and factional battles, he recalls the atmosphere of the previous competition’s jury as remarkably collegial. “I must say, last competition we had a very harmonious way of working together,” he says. “Of course, we are working to a point system, and then we discuss. But I remember we were quite unanimous about the final decisions.”
Over the years, Poppen has become sceptical of competitions that rely solely on numerical scoring. Some competitions simply total up points and declare a winner – for him, reality is more complicated.
“There are competitions that go strictly by a point system: just calculate, and say, ‘Okay, the first prize is clear.’ I never believed in that – numbers are very tricky,” he says. “With numbers you can wield influence in quite a strong way. If a juror wanted to push someone, they could give the others very low scores.”
The responsibility of leading a jury is great, and requires creating an environment in which every juror feels comfortable expressing an honest opinion, while also reaching a broad consensus. “The choice of jury is somehow already the first round of a competition,” he says.
As the 2027 competition approaches, Poppen remains convinced that Hong Kong occupies a special place in the international musical landscape. He describes it as “one of the most fascinating, colourful, tolerant and open big cities in the world.”
Unlike many European cities, where classical music audiences continue to age, Hong Kong regularly attracts large numbers of young listeners. It’s an environment particularly rewarding for younger, emerging artists.
For aspiring conductors considering whether to apply, Poppen believes the answer is obvious. Few competitions offer the chance to work with such a responsive orchestra and perform before such an engaged audience – and especially important is the opportunity to become part of a world community of young conductors.
“Everyone who joins this competition is already gaining a great benefit,” he says. “First of all, by conducting such a great orchestra, and then also by meeting other conductors.”
For a profession he describes as fundamentally solitary, that may be the most important prize of all.
The 3rd Hong Kong International Conducting Competition runs from 27th–31st January 2027.
The deadline for candidate applications is 17th June 2026.
This article was sponsored by the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.
