Israeli conductor Michal Oren has won the sixth Evgeny Svetlanov International Conducting Competition.

The winner was announced at Symphony Hall Birmingham on Sept. 6 following four days of competition with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO).

The decision was made by an international jury chaired by conductor Bertrand de Billy and included Mauro Bucarelli, Christoph Ghristi, Sascha Goetzel, Paul Hughes, Ion Marin, Matthias Naske, Deborah Polaski and Kazuki Yamada.

Oren also received the CBSO Orchestra Prize, Rui Miguel Marques the Audience Prize and Online Audience Prize.

The Second Prize was awarded to Israeli conductor Mikhail Mering and third prize went to Portuguese conductor Rui Miguel Marques.

In a statement Oren said, “I’m honored and thrilled to be the winner of the Competition, it’s been an amazing experience with the CBSO and my wonderful conducting colleagues, and it was an honour to perform the music of Svetlanov on 98th anniversary of his birth. I’m grateful to the jury, the orchestra and the organisation!”

In a statement Kazuki Yamada, Music Director of the CBSO and member of the Jury said, “This competition and its concept is very unique. Everybody is very happy to meet the fantastic talents of the 18 candidates. This competition bears the name of Svetlanov, which means that the most important thing is to respect Svetlanov’s philosophy. He was a kind of magician. He could use magic so that many miracles happened, this is why the competition is waiting for such a charismatic person. We are happy to have found Michal Oren in keeping with this philosophy. Oren had something special from the beginning of this competition. If Maestro Svetlanov were still alive, I’m very sure that he would have chosen her, too.”