Sir Georg Solti International Conductors' Competition

The Sir Georg Solti International Conductors' Competition is a German competition for conductors that occurs biennially in Frankfurt, at the Alte Oper. The cooperating music organisations are the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester and the hr-Sinfonieorchester. The competition was founded in memory of Sir Georg Solti, who led the Frankfurt Opera during 1952–1961. The patroness of the competition for many years was Valerie, Lady Solti, the widow of Sir Georg Solti.

Prize winners

Year	Edition	First Prize	Second Prize	Third Prize
2002	1	Not awarded	Tomáš Netopil (Czech Republic)	Paul Chiang (Taiwan) Ruben Gazarian (Armenia)
2004	2	James Gaffigan (United States) Ivo Venkov (Bulgaria)	Johannes Gustavsson (Sweden)	Not awarded
2006	3	Shi-Yeon Sung (Korea)	Shizuo Z Kuwahara (United States)	Matthew Coorey (Australia)
2008	4	Shizuo Z Kuwahara (United States)	Eugene Tzigane (United States)	Andreas Hotz (Germany)
2010	5	José Luís Gómez Ríos (Spain)	Kevin Griffiths (United Kingdom)	Tito Muñoz (United States)
2012	6	Daye Lin (China)	Daniel Smith (Australia)	Brandon Keith Brown[1] (United States)
2015	7	Not awarded	Tung-Chieh Chuang (Taiwan) (Audience award) Elias Grandy (Germany)	Toby Thatcher[2] (Australia)
2017	8	Valentin Uryupin[3] (Russia) (Audience award)	Wilson Ng (Hong Kong)	Farkhad Khudyev[4][5] (Turkmenistan)
2020	9	Tianyi Lu[6] (New Zealand)	Gábor Hontvári (Hungary) Johannes Zahn (Germany) (Audience award)	Not awarded

Prize money

As of 2020^[update] the prize money is:^[7]

• 1st prize €15,000
• 2nd prize €10,000
• 3rd prize €5,000
• Audience award

The audience award is linked to the symbolic handover of an original conducting baton from Sir Georg Solti from his time in Frankfurt.

The winners of the first and second prizes are given the prospect of conducting the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra (concert and opera) and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony. Other orchestras are holding out the prospect of guest conductors or assistance.