The Centre for Music Performance (CMP) is pleased to announce that, following this year’s University Conducting Competition, five student Conducting Scholars have been appointed for the 2025-26 academic year.

Jao-Yong Tsai, a music undergraduate at Selwyn College, has been appointed as Assistant Conductor of the Cambridge University Orchestra (CUO) for a second year.  In this capacity he will assist distinguished professional conductors visiting the University.
Second-year Clare College music undergraduate Isaac Chan and first-year St Catharine’s College music undergraduate Isabel Lee have been appointed as Co-Conductors of the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra (CUSO).  Isaac will also serve as Assistant Conductor for one Cambridge University Orchestra project.

Second-year Sidney Sussex College music undergraduate Jane Hammond will continue as Conductor of the Cambridge University Wind Orchestra (CUWO) and will be joined by Assistant Conductor Maddie Melville-Smith, a second-year music undergraduate at Robinson College.
Conducting competition finalists completed aural tests, a live audition with the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra, and an interview with the judging panel, which was chaired by the Centre for Music Performance’s Artistic Advisor on Orchestral Music, distinguished conductor Sian Edwards.  The panel also included veteran music agent Jonathan Groves (Managing Director of Groves Artists), Centre for Music Performance Director Simon Fairclough, and representatives from the University Orchestra, the University Symphony Orchestra and the University Wind Orchestra.

The five Conducting Scholars will receive conducting tuition from Sian Edwards at the Royal Academy of Music.

Sian Edwards commented: “My fellow judges and I were once again impressed by the standard of the finalists in this year’s competition.  We congratulate our five new Conducting Scholars, and we look forward to supporting them on the next stage of their musical journeys.  We will follow their progress with interest.”

The five conductors follow in the footsteps of world-leading professional conductors who held similar roles while studying at Cambridge including Nicholas Collon, Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner and Robin Ticciati. In recent years, student conductors have included:
•    Bertie Baigent (winner of the 2022 Rotterdam Conducting Competition)
•    Stephanie Childress (now Principal Guest Conductor of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra)
•    Ben Glassberg (now Music Director of the Vienna Volksoper and Opéra de Rouen Normandie)
•    Adam Hickox (now Principal Conductor of the Glyndebourne Sinfonia)
•    Tess Jackson (now Associate Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain)
•    Harry Ogg (now Kapellmeister at Deutsche Oper am Rhein)
•    Joel Sandelson (winner of the 2021 Herbert von Karajan Young Conductor’s Award at the Salzburg Festival)
•    Naomi Woo (now Music Director of NYO Canada, Artistic Partner at the Orchestre Métropolitain Montréal and Assistant Conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra).