George Pehlivanian: A New Vision for Conducting Competitions

So you deliberately set out to address that gap.

Absolutely. I don’t believe a conducting career follows one single timeline. Conducting takes time. Who you are as a conductor at 25, 35, 45 or 55 can be very different, and every age has its own richness to offer.

Most competitions cap the age at 35, rarely at 40. That automatically excludes a huge group of musicians who may have a lot to say. I wanted to create a competition that reflects the true nature of our profession: that conductors grow, change and often come to their real artistic depth later in life.

That’s why our age limit is simple: from 18 upwards, with no upper limit. If you are ready to stand in front of an orchestra and show who you are, you are welcome.

You chose to base the competition in Slovenia. Why Bled? What makes it the right place?

Slovenia has been a central part of my life for a long time. I’ve been conducting in the country since 1998, I was chief conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic, and my family life is here—my lovely wife and children are Slovenian. At the same time I remain Parisian at heart, so my life is really split between these two places.

Bled itself is a jewel. It’s a small paradise within this country of only 2 million people, and it is unique: a lake with an island and a church in the middle—many people know the famous bell which you ring to make your wishes come true. I rang that bell a few years ago, and in a way, this competition is part of that wish.

Practically, Bled has everything we need: a beautiful modern festival hall, full convention and concert infrastructure, and an existing professional framework because I already run my Professional Opera Academy here, now in its seventh edition. It’s an ideal environment logistically and artistically to host an international competition at a very high level.

Besides the open age limit, what are other key features of this competition?

One main feature is the inclusion of a full three-day conference on sustainable career development as a central part of the competition—not as a side event. The conference was conceived in close collaboration with the competition’s Co-Executive Director, my better half, Sabina Pehlivanian, and is informed by her ongoing academic research on career sustainability in the classical music ecosystem. Together, we wanted to ensure that the competition responds to the real professional conditions conductors face today. When I won the Besançon Competition in 1991 at 27, it was a major turning point in my life. I was the first American in history to have won it, after Seiji Ozawa had been the first Japanese winner. And yet, once I had won, I realized nobody really told me what to do next, and how to do it. I was totally on my own.

Of course I had great mentors—Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, Ferdinand Leitner. They gave me suggestions and artistic guidance. But when it came to the practical side of a career—agents, management, strategy—there was almost a taboo. I remember asking giants like Celibidache or Carlos Kleiber what they thought about managers. In both cases the answer was basically: “I don't want to hear about managers! ” They had their own world, their own bubble, and didn’t really want to engage with the machinery behind what it takes to develop a young conductor’s career.

Today, we live in a very different reality. Management agencies remain extremely important, but we are also in a generation of self‑entrepreneurship. Musicians have to understand how to build and manage their careers themselves. How to approach orchestras and opera houses, how to work with agents, how to use the tools we have—social media, recordings, networking—in a professional way.

So the conference is there to give conductors, at all stages of life, the tools and knowledge nobody gave my generation in a systematic way. We will have around 30 speakers from all over the world—leading figures in our industry, including yourself—speaking directly to the participants about the real issues they face.

Another feature in the competition is the 3 different layers of the jury system, which I designed to be both rigorous and truly global. 

Let’s go through that system!

First, the global preselection. Some competitions send members of a jury to three or four cities. We decided to go much further: we will go to 15 major world cities. 

The idea is simple: instead of asking everyone to come to us, we go to where the conductors really are. We show them that we care enough to travel, to meet them one-on-one, to let them conduct two pianos in front of a serious local and national jury in their own region. That’s the first layer.

From those preselections we will choose up to 144 conductors for the preliminary round in Bled (though we may well select fewer; 144 is the maximum). In Bled, they will conduct in this Preliminary Round, two pianos—just as I did in Besancon in 1991.

From there, 18 finalists are chosen by the special jury, and this group enters the orchestral rounds.

This second level of jury is a panel of five international conductors. Not one or two, but five, spanning different generations and backgrounds. They are responsible for choosing those 18 finalists from the preliminary phase.

Then comes the third level: the international jury for the orchestral rounds. Here we really have what I would call the “crème de la crème”: top artistic and executive leadership from major orchestras and opera houses—people like Bill Chandler, Director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, who will chair the jury; Christina Rocca from the Chicago Symphony; Marlene Brügge from the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Umberto Fanni from the Royal Opera House Muscat; Lawrence Foster; major international agents like Alessandro Ariosi and Robert Gilder,Henry Fogel, past president of the Chicago Symphony and the League of American Orchestras; Pål Svendsberget, Managing Director of the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra and Maja Kojc, Artistic Director of the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra

These are people who daily decide who conducts the world’s great orchestras and opera houses. They bring not only expertise but also real, concrete opportunities.

In terms of structure, there has been a trend in recent years: some competitions choose a very small final group and give them many opportunities; others keep a more traditional broader field. Your competition seems to be somewhere in between. 

We have five orchestra rounds in total, with 18 conductors in the orchestral phase, and I see those 18 as the core “field” of the competition.

The first three orchestra rounds are with the FOA Festival Orchestra—my own orchestra— which can be expanded depending on repertoire. The semi-final and final rounds take place with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, the national Radio and Television orchestra, a historic national orchestra with strong international experience. They will play both the concerto round and the symphonic repertoire.

The number 18 is very deliberate. When I competed in Besançon, we were almost 100 conductors in France, and the great Vladimir Fedoseyev, who chaired the jury, immediately reduced us to 18. That model worked very well, so I adopted it.

So: open eligibility, a global preselection, up to 144 in Bled to compete in the Preliminaries and partake in the sustainable career development conference, and from there 18 conductors who will each have a real chance to show what they can do in front of an orchestra. This original system is unique and incomparable to any other existing competition.

Let’s speak about the prizes and opportunities attached to the competition.

On the financial side, the first prize is an attractive $50,000, which unmistakably places it at the highest financial award currently offered in conducting competitions. In total we have ten prizes, not just two or three. I see this as a responsibility: if you chose 18 finalists in Bled, you shouldn’t simply send most of them home empty-handed. You should recognize and encourage excellence as much as possible.

Equally important are the career opportunities. We have formed partnerships with major opera houses and orchestras worldwide. On the opera side, we have 7 partner opera houses: La Fenice in Venice, Bologna, Genova, the Royal Opera House Muscat, New York City Opera, Istanbul State Opera, Ljubljana and Maribor Opera Houses. Several conductors will receive invitations as assistant conductors on productions or as official observers. That is where you truly learn how opera functions on a day to day basis, artistically and logistically.

On the symphonic side, we have 13 invitations from orchestras around the globe to host prizewinners and finalists. These will not be limited to the first prize winner; other finalists will also be selected for these engagements.

We also have an orchestra prize: the musicians of the RTV Slovenia Orchestra will elect one conductor from the group of 18 for a special award which includes a recording with the orchestra. As well as the traditional Public Prize.

Looking at Besançon, which famously reserves the right not to award a Grand Prix at all, how flexible are your own rules about awarding the prizes?

Obviously, I would love to see  the First Prize awarded!  But, it will not be mandatory. No prize is. The jury must feel that a given level has been reached to be awarded.  All prizes can also be shared. I wanted to keep a high artistic standard and at the same time make the prize structure as democratic as possible. We trust our jury deeply: whether they work for Chicago, BBC, Berlin, Kristiansand, Ljubljana or major opera houses and managements, these people know what they are doing. My role within the jury is strictly honorary. I will not vote. I will be there to oversee and advise, ensuring that the process runs smoothly, but the decisions are entirely theirs.

One of the most delicate issues in any high-level competition is the dynamic within the jury. How do you plan to handle discussions, potential disagreements, and the process of decision-making?

I’ve served on international juries myself on many occasions, so I’ve seen several models. I’m convinced that the most productive approach is a two-step process:

First, voting without discussion. Each jury member assigns points—on a 1 to 10 scale—independently. That gives us an unfiltered snapshot of where everyone stands. When we look at the results, there’s usually a clear top group, a clear bottom group, and perhaps a more contested middle.

Only then, if we see that certain candidates are very close in the middle and decisions must be made, we open the floor to deliberation. At that point, sharing opinions is useful: Why did you support this candidate? What did you see that others maybe didn’t, or vice versa? That’s where the “temperature” of the room must be carefully handled.

This is exactly the job of the chair, and we are fortunate to have Bill Chandler in that position. Bill is not only the Director of the BBC Symphony; he was the associate concertmaster of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and he has extensive experience from the Houston Symphony and the BBC Concert Orchestra as well. He knows what orchestral musicians need from a conductor, and he knows how to lead discussions among strong personalities. I trust him completely in this role.

Looking ahead: the first edition is in 2026. What is your vision for the future, and when will the second edition take place?

Our executive committee has already decided that the competition will be held every four years. The second edition is planned for 2030.

My hope is that this becomes a meaningful, sustainable event—not just “another competition with a name on it.” The name may be Pehlivanian, but the concept is fundamentally global. It’s about creating opportunities for conductors worldwide, at all stages of their careers.

A key part of that long-term vision is the sustainable career development conference. During the first three days in Bled, all selected candidates—up to 144 of them—will be there together. They will not only present themselves to the five international conductors’ jury; they will concurrently also attend the full three-day sustainable career development conference. That conference is for them, and their questions will be addressed. That, I promise you.

My ideal outcome is that everyone who comes to Bled in those first 3 days leaves as a winner, even if they are not among the 18 finalists. They will leave as champions of new knowledge, with a clearer understanding of how our profession works, with new contacts, and with direct networking with the panelists and institutions. Engraved, an inner new determination, that they are better equiped to sail through the rough and restless waters of our profession, searching for their shores of purpose.

To extend this impact further, the entire conference will be live-streamed on our PICC YouTube channel. So even conductors who cannot travel there will be able to follow the discussions and panels in real time and benefit from them live, and perhaps even later on, from our archives.

Our hope is that the competition becomes well known not only for its top prizes but also for truly equipping conductors for a meaningful international career—artistically and professionally—then I’ll feel we have achieved our mission and left an ongoing global impact for future generations of conductors, successfuly.

Born in Beirut, George Pehlivanian began piano at three and violin at six, and emigrated with his family to Los Angeles in 1975. He later studied conducting with Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel and Ferdinand Leitner. In 1991 he became the first American to win the Grand Prize at the Besançon Conducting Competition.  
Since then he has conducted many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Israel Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Monte‑Carlo Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, as well as major orchestras across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.  
He has collaborated with artists such as Leonidas Kavakos, Vadim Repin, Sarah Chang, Joshua Bell, Janine Jansen, Misha Maisky, Gidon Kremer, Jean‑Yves Thibaudet, Arcadi Volodos, Emanuel Ax, Lynn Harrell, Maurice André, Evelyn Glennie and Mirella Freni.  
Pehlivanian has been Chief Conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic (2005–2008) and Principal Guest Conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, the Wiener Kammerorchester, the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland‑Pfalz and the Opera in Cagliari. His discography on Virgin Classics/EMI, BMG, Chandos and Studio SM includes acclaimed recordings, notably Liszt’s complete works for piano and orchestra with Louis Lortie.

© WFIMC 2026 / FR