After a 40-year absence, the “Guido Cantelli” International Conducting Competition is making a major return in 2020.

The 11^th edition of the competition is set to celebrate the 100^th birthday of the famed conductor who was born in Novara on April 27, 1920. The competition, which is set to kick off  its application process between March 1 and April 30, 2020.

Conductors between the ages of 18 and 35 are eligible for the competition.

Between Sept. 9-12, the finalists will head to Turin where they will perform alongside the Orchestra del Teatro Regio. The second and final round of the contest, slated for Sept. 13, will head to the Teatro Coccia in Novara, Cantelli’s hometown.

“I still keep a note that was handed by a classical music aficionado to the box office personnel of the Teatro Coccia to be delivered to me just a few days after I was nominated: ‘Director, please bring the Premio Cantelli back to life and bring it back to Novara,” stated Corinne Baroni, Artistic Director of the Premio Cantelli and Director of Novara’s Teatro Coccia. “I can now happily state that after working on it for over a year, we are able to give back to the town a portion of its history. The Premio Cantelli maintains its prestige and its structure, but it comes back as the fruit of its time, a time that sees innovation as the engine for development. Not just competition but opportunity, a transmitter of values, an instrument of dissemination.”

The competition has kicked off the careers of such famed maestros as Riccardo Muti, Eliahu Inbal, Ádám Fischer, Donato Renzetti, Hubert Soudant, and Lothar Zagrosek.

The competition has also signed a partnership deal with Warner Classics.