The Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship for women conductors presents Chloé van Soeterstede 2019-2021 Taki Concordia Conducting Fellow. The Taki Award goes to three distinguished finalists: Maria Badstue, Holly Hyun Choe, and Rebecca Tong. Please join us in welcoming our new Fellow and Taki Award recipients!
The Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship is a two year program which offers mentoring by Marin Alsop and career support and encouragement from the Taki Fellowship team. The Fellow also receives a a yearly stipend to support her career activities.
The Taki Award was established this year in recognition of three distinguished finalists. Taki Award recipients receive a one time financial prize and support from Marin Alsop and the Taki Fellowship team.
Meet our Fellows and Taki Award Recipients
Taki Fellow Chloé van Soeterstède was born in France in 1988 and completed her conducting studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2017. Since then she has conducted the Orchestre National de Lille, Besançon “Victor Hugo” Orchestra, European Union Youth Orchestra, North Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata and Aurora Orchestra. In 2018 she was a featured artist in France TV1’s Grands Reportages in an episode titled ‘Mon Métier de Rêve’ (My Dream Job) and appeared in France 3’s Fauteuils d’Orchestre conducting the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris.
In 2019/20 Chloé will make her debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, across France with the Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Orchestre Symphonique Région Centre-Val de Loire, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lorraine, the Orchestre National de Montpellier, and elsewhere with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Turkey and this summer she will conduct the Haydn Orchestra at the Bolzano festival in a collaboration with the Virgilio Sieni dance company.
Chloé has assisted François-Xavier Roth on projects with Les Siècles and the French National Youth Orchestra and other major conductors including Jurowski with the London Philharmonic, Storgårds and Gernon with the BBC Philharmonic, Petrenko and Tortelier with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Elder with the Hallé. Chloé has taken part in masterclasses with Mena, Alsop, Petrenko, Elder, Paavo Järvi, Grazynite-Tyla, Schläfi and Panula. In May 2019 Chloé was awarded the title of Fellow of the Taki Concordia Conducting Programme and will be mentored by Marin Alsop during 2019-2021.
Keen on working with young musicians, Chloé is a regular guest conductor with the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain, the Hallé Youth Orchestra and in 2017 she was guest Artistic Director and Guest Principal Conductor of Greater Manchester Youth Strings Orchestra. From 2019, she will be Music Director of the Hertfordshire School Symphony Orchestra succeeding Ben Glassberg and she will conduct them on their German tour in Summer 2019. Also keen to expand into opera, Chloé was assistant conductor at Holland Park Opera on a production of Mascagni Isabeau.
In 2012, Chloé founded the Arch Sinfonia, a vibrant chamber orchestra based in London renowned for its boundless energy and committed performances. Arch Sinfonia performs a wide range of repertoire, and strives to build bridges between artists and audience.
In 2017, she was a Quarter-Finalist in the International Conducting Competition in Besançon, in 2018 one of the 20 finalists selected for the Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition and in 2019 she will be one of the 12 finalists in the Dirigentenpreis conducting competition in Cologne.
Chloé studied viola at the Royal Academy of Music and as an instrumentalist she has performed with the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Pacific Music Festival, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, at the Royal Opera House and London’s Wigmore Hall. Between 2015-2017 she studied conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music with Clark Rundell and Mark Heron where she was awarded the Kennedy scholarship and was also supported by the Derek Hill Foundation.
Chloé is officially mentored by Leyla Gunes and Jesus Herrera at Intermusica Artist Management.
Maria Badstue, Taki Award Recipient
Born in Mumbai and reared in Denmark, Maria Badstue is a conductor who has “clearly demonstrated why she is considered one of the best young Danish conductors of today.” (Berlingske Media)
In 2018 Maria made her debut with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra in a concert tour of Denmark and made her Swedish opera debut conducting Massenet’s Don Quixote at the FolkOperan in Stockholm. Other engagements included concerts with the Sinfonietta da Camerera Salzburg, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, and concerts with the Ploetsi Philharmonic Orchestra, Romania.
Upcoming engagements include concerts with the Symphony Orchestra of India, the Tivoli Festival with the Copenhagen Philharmonic, and the South Denmark Philharmonic.
Maria is well known in her home country having conducted the Odense Symphony, the South Denmark Philharmonic, and the Aalborg Symphony. She made her official Danish debut in 2013 with the Copenhagen Philharmonic. Other recent highlights have included the Gothenburg Symphony, Malmö Symphony, Helsingborg Symphony, Orkester Norden, Kristiansand Symphony, and Oltenia Philharmonic.
In the summer of 2017 Maria visited her birth country of India for the first time conducting a production of Il Matrimonio Segreto at the Royal Opera House of Mumbai. Maria will subsequently return to India for the next few seasons to collaborate with the Symphony Orchestra of India Chamber Orchestra.
Maria made her opera conducting debut in 2012 with the production of ANGELO – La Opera in Copenhagen, and in 2015 she was invited to conduct the production of A Dolls House by John Frandsen with Athelas Sinonietta. Other productions have included Heroes & Villains with the Danish National Opera and Hindemith ́s Cardillac assisting Michael Boder at Wiener Staatsoper.
Maria is rooted in the Finnish school of orchestral conducting: between 2007-2013 Maria was mentored by professor Jorma Paula, working with him closely in both Finland and abroad, and serving as his teaching assistant. In 2012 she founded the highly successful Nordic Masterclass for Conductors in collaboration with Jorma Panula and the South Denmark Philharmonic. The Nordic Masterclass is now in its 6th season.
She earned her masters degree in 2014 studying with Jukka Pekka Saraste and Ole Kristian Ruud at the Norwegian State Academy, and attended masterclasses with Bernhard Haitink and George Hurst. Maria assisted Esa-Pekka Salonen on projects with NDR Elbphilharmonie, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Maria Badstue won first prize in the 5th Lovro von Matatic Competition with the Croatian Radio and Television Orchestra and has been awarded the Sonning Talent Prize, the Augustinus Foundation Jubilee Grant, and the Hämeenlinna City Orchestra´s Conductors Stipend. She has twice been presented with the Arne Hammelboe Scholarship Grant awarded by the Danish Conductors Association.
Holly Hyun Choe, Taki Award Recipient
Holly Hyun Choe is a Korean-American conductor from Los Angeles and currently the Music Director of the Orchesterverein Wiedikon and the University of St. Gallen Alumni Orchester in Switzerland.
Holly is currently a Conducting Fellow of the prestigious Deutscher Musikrat Dirigentenforum (Conductor’s Forum) in Germany through which she was able to conduct concerts with the Heidelberg Symphony, and the Hofer Symphoniker. In April 2019 she was chosen as one of the two new Conducting Fellows of the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation Mentoring Program in Hungary.
Holly is currently completing her second master’s degree at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in orchestral conducting with the world-renown teacher, Johannes Schlaefli. During her studies in Switzerland in various settings, she has conducted many professional orchestras around the world such as the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Picardie Orchestra, Meininger Hofkapelle and Theater Orchestra, Hofer Symphoniker, Heidelberg Symphony, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, Filharmonie Hradec Králové, Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester, Karlovy Vary Symphony, St. Christofer Chamber Orchestra, Pilsen Opera, and the Pazardjik Philharmonic Orchestra. She recently made her debut with the Sónderjyllands Symfoniorkester on a mini tour to Germany and Denmark.
Holly has participated in masterclasses with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Jorma Panula, Jaap van Zweden, Simone Young, Larry Rachleff, and Teodor Currentzis.
Holly’s interest in contemporary music and diverse musical genres has lead her to premiering the works of composers from Greece, Mexico, Sweden, China, South Korea, Switzerland, and the USA. She has also worked as an artistic director intern with the Golden State Pops Orchestra with composers such as Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino (Pixar’s Up and The Incredibles), Alan Silvestri (Forrest Gump), and John Powell (How to Train Your Dragon), and several other important Hollywood film music composers.
Holly has a strong interest in taking her music-making beyond the concert hall platform. She worked for seven years in summer music camps teaching thousands of high school students, and has also given mini-conducting seminars for audiences ranging from elementary schools, a center for adults with physical and mental disabilities, elderly nursing homes, Immigrant Family Services Institute for Haitian Immigrants, and as a guest artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Arts Museum in Boston. In the future Ms. Choe wishes to support research into the integration of music and the healthcare field.
Holly has a bachelor’s degree in clarinet performance and music education from the Bob Cole Conservatory of California State University Long Beach. She received her first master’s degree in wind ensemble conducting from New England Conservatory with Charles Peltz.
Rebecca Tong, Taki Award Recipient
A native Indonesian of Chinese descent, Rebecca Tong is the Resident Conductor of the Jakarta Simfonia Orchestra and the Junior Fellow in Conducting with the Royal Northern College of Music working as the assistant to the RNCM Opera department. She is assisting two major orchestras in United Kingdom: The BBC Philharmonic and The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
Rebecca’s 2019 engagements include a Royal Northern College of Music performance Vaughan William’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues de Carmelites. She recently served as Music Director of City Lyric’s Opera (New York City) production of La Tragédie de Carmen.
In 2018 Rebecca was chosen as one of the Conducting Fellows at the Cabrillo Festival of the Contemporary Music and mentored by Cristian Măcelaru. In 2017, she was the recipient of David Effron Conducting Fellowship for the Chautauqua Institution working together with Timothy Muffitt and the Music School Festival Orchestra.
Rebecca has worked with many renown international musicians including Steven Isserlis, Jahja Ling (Conductor Laureate of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra), Lev Polyakin (former assistant concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra), the Great Wall String Quartet, Jessie Chang, Jeff Thayer (concertmaster of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra), and prominent organist Chelsea Chen.
Rebecca’s repertoire ranges from symphonic and operatic works to more intimate chamber music. She recently conducted the Asian premiere of Mozetich Duo Harp Concerto in 2018, the Indonesian premiere of Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, and has collaborated with astronomer & visual artist José Francisco Salgado from KV265 in performances of Gustav Holst’s The Planets.
Rebecca has participated in opera and orchestral workshops with Sir Mark Elder, Mark Shanahan, Gustav Meier, Clark Rundell, Mark Heron, Neil Varon, Leon Fleisher, Mark Gibson, Roberto Paternostro, John Farrer.
In 2011, Rebecca founded and lead the Jakarta Christian Youth Orchestra. She also served on the music faculty of the International Reformed Evangelical Seminary from 2009 to 2012. Growing up in a musical family, she always listened and discovered new things within the music itself. Making music together as a community has been the goal of her life.
Rebecca received a Master of Arts in orchestral conducting at College – Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, USA under the mentorship of Mark Gibson.