No First Prize at the Mahler Comp

The triennial Mahler Conducting Competition concluded on July 3 with no first-prize winner, one second-prize, and two third prizes. Those went to Sieva Borzak (29, Italy) and Simon Clausse (25, France), while Jakub Przybycien (31, Poland) took second.

This is the Bamburg Symphony’s international competition founded in 2004 by granddaughter Marina Mahler with Ernest Fleischmann and Jonathan Nott, the orchestra’s chief conductor at the time. Gustavo Dudamel was the inaugural winner and remains its highest profile contender.

With this result, the ten men and three women of the judging panel (Marina, as patron, is an honorary member) proudly reaffirmed the contest’s “high artistic standard.” Speaking for the jury, Bamburg Symphony Chief Conductor Jakub Hruša said, “Jakub Przybycien [is] a wonderful young Polish colleague who was very clearly the best of all the candidates throughout the entire competition.

“The jury—and this is important to say—assessed not only the final concert or the rehearsals, but the whole process and the whole development. It assessed the competencies as well as the potential, the intelligence as well as the emotion, the musicality as well as how convincing each candidate was in working with the orchestra.” He goes on to say Przybycien was the “best participant,” but that “we decided second prize would be appropriate, given our evaluation….”  Przybycien receives €20,000, while Borzak and Clausse each get €10,000. Przybycien also won the audience prize, while 27-year-old U.K. conductor Oliver Cope won the opportunity to make a studio recording with the Bamberg Symphony.

This marked the second time in the competition's history that no first prize was awarded.

Jurors included Hrusa, Thomas Adés, Pablo Heras-Casado, outgoing Ojai Festival Artistic Director Ara Guzelimian, British conductor Sian Edwards, Deborah Borda, and Askonas-Holt (Przybycien's management firm) consultant Martin Campbell-White, among others.

Live rounds ran from June 23 to July 3, with 24 conductors from 13 countries—19 men and five women—all in their early 20s to mid 30s. The final concert will be on the Bamburg Symphony’s YouTube channel until July 10.

Pictured: Jakub Przybycien

Jakub Hruša is Musical America's 2026 Conductor of the Year.