During May 25-27, 2011 ten finalists gathered in Memphis, TN to compete for the MSO's Inaugural International Conducting Competition. There was jury of distinguished members present to judge, including:
Robert
Spano, Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra,
Anthony Fogg,
Artistic Administrator of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and
Aaron Jay Kernis, Pulitzer prize
winning Composer and Professor at Yale School of Music
. Prizes were as follows: First Place: The Joy Brown Wiener Musical Excellence Award - $7500, Second Place - $3000, and Special Mention - $1000 as well as the opportunity to conduct the Memphis Symphony Orchestra once more in a First Tennessee Masterworks concert in October 2012.
First-place prize went to Ken Lam, who set aside a law career to pursue his love of music and conducting. He is assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Lam will appear as a guest conductor with the MSO in the
2012-2013 season for a Paul & Linnea Bert Classic Accents performance. Roger Kalia, a native of New York and music director of the Columbus (Indiana) Symphony, took the second prize, and Aram Demijrian, a conducting student at the New England Conservatory, won third place. The three conducted pieces by Dvorák, Hindemith and Ravel in October 2012.