Donatella Flick Conducting Competition

The sixth Donatella Flick Conducting Competition will be held 21-23 October in London. It aims to advance the careers of young conductors under the age of 35 who are citizens of the European Union. The winner receives an award of 15,000 pounds sterling, and will work as assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra for a year.

Paul Mann, winner of the 1998 Competition, has, for example, assisted Sir Colin Davis in preparing performances of Verdi's Otello with Jose Cura, and has worked with Mstislav Rostropovich, Myung-Whun Chung and Kent Nagano. Paul also conducted the LSO and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis and two performances of the LSO with Deep Purple at the Royal Albert Hall.

A distinguished international jury chaired by Lord Birkett and consisting of James MacMillan, Carlo Majer, Yuri Temirkanov, Yan Pascal Tortelier, and Moray Welsh will choose the winner from 20 candidates selected to take part in the competition. Further information and application forms (which must be received by 16 May 2000) are available on the Competition's website.

Tobias Picker

The American composer Tobias Picker, at present little known in Europe, is to be represented in future by Boosey & Hawkes through his new agreement with the Leonard Bernstein Publishing Company. Picker has operas in hand for Dallas (Therese Raquin based on Zola's novel) and the Met for 2003. A new Cello Concerto is to be written for the London Proms.

Top 50 classical music websites

The February 2000 edition of Chamber Music America lists the magazine's choice of the top 50 classical music websites, with the emphasis on information provided. In third place comes La Scena Musicale from Canada. In second place, an upstart magazine called Music & Vision. First place is awarded to the British website cadenza.org.