The Salzburg Festival has announced that Joel Sandelson has been named the winner of the Herbert Von Karajan Young Conductors Award.

The award, which is given every two years, recognizes outstanding talents in conductors aged 35 and under. The prize includes 15,000 Euros, as well as the opportunity to conduct a Festival concert in August 2022 with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, which will be recorded and released on CD as part of the edition Salzburg Festival Documents.

Starting his career as a cellist, Sandelson performed recitals at venues throughout Europe before switching to conducting. He studied at Cambridge University as well as the Royal Academy of Music and served as assistant conductor with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He is the artistic director of the baroque orchestra Wondr’rous Machine. He has conducted performances with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Sofia Philharmonic, and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, among others.

“I am overjoyed to have received this wonderful prize from an institution such as the Salzburg Festival,” says Sandelson. “I enjoyed working with the Camerata Salzburg incredibly, and I wish to thank the orchestra especially, just like the Salzburg Festival and the jury. I also learned a lot from my two colleagues. Winning was a wonderful surprise.”