Feifan Jiang, 25, Wins Inaugural Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition

Feifan Jiang, a 25-year-old conductor from China, has won the first Guido Cantelli conducting competition in Novara, Italy — and he did not leave a single prize on the table.

Jiang, who is currently conductor-in-residence at the Xi'an Symphony Orchestra, took the €12,000 first prize. He also claimed every additional award on offer in Novara:

• The critics' prize
• The agents' prize
• The young people's jury award
• The prize of the Friends of the Teatro Coccia
• The vote of the players of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano

A unanimous sweep across juries of critics, agents, young listeners and working musicians is a rare signal of consensus in a field where aesthetic judgments routinely diverge. The vote of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano's players carries particular weight: musicians who sit under a conductor's baton render the most immediate verdict on a competitor's craft.

Jiang is represented by Only Stage management.

Who was Guido Cantelli?

The competition honours a figure whose career ended abruptly at its height. Next month marks 70 years since Guido Cantelli died in an air crash, shortly after takeoff from Orly airport in Paris. He was just 36.

Cantelli was a protégé of Arturo Toscanini, one of the defining conductors of the twentieth century. His death in 1956 cut short a trajectory widely regarded as destined for the very summit of the podium.

What does the win mean for Jiang's career?

For a 25-year-old, a clean sweep at a first-edition international competition in Italy — the country whose conducting tradition shaped Cantelli and Toscanini — offers immediate visibility with European orchestras, agents and critics. Jiang already holds a residency post at the Xi'an Symphony Orchestra, and his existing representation by Only Stage positions him for engagements beyond China.

The full prize list, combining the €12,000 purse with endorsements from five separate juries, effectively announces a name that European concert presenters will now be watching.