U-M student wins special prize at conducting competition

Yaniv Dinur, 28 - a doctoral student at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance - won a special prize in the fourth Eduardo Mata Conducting Competition, held in Mexico City Sept. 22-27.

Although the competition - whose 16 contestants were selected from 103 applicants from 33 countries - usually awards only one prize, this year, the jury split the main prize between two finalist conductors, American Rebecca Miller and Lithuanian Vytautas Lukocius, and created a special second-place award for the third finalist, Dinur, who hails from Israel. He was an audience and orchestra favorite whose conducting of two movements of the Sibelius Second Symphony on the competition’s last day, broadcast live on Mexican national television, garnered the endorsement of members of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Dinur, who studies with U-M conductor Kenneth Kiesler, won $2,000 and concerts with different orchestras in Latin America. He is currently in his third and last year of a doctoral program in orchestral conducting.

“I was very pleased with the outcome,” Dinur said in an e-mail just before he left for his native Jerusalem Thursday to conduct two concerts with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and see family. “The fact that the jury decided to create another prize especially for me is very meaningful to me. I felt that I was in my best during the competition and that was the most important thing for me.

"It was a difficult and tiring week. The competition was held in three rounds, we started 16 conductors and finished three in the finals, so the result is very satisfying. Plus, the fact that I managed to cause a minor scandal, so-to-speak, made me happy too ...”

Dinur’s credits include participation in conductor Lorin Maazel’s summer music festival at his Virginia farm and conducting master classes with Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur and Pinchas Zukerman. He has conducted orchestras in Israel, Europe, and the U.S. and Canada, including the New World Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and the National Arts Center Orchestra in Ottawa.

“This is my third and last year in the DMA Orchestral Conducting Program,” Dinur wrote, “ant it is a very busy year for me: guest conducting, job auditions and, of course, finishing my doctorate. My time here has been wonderful and I hope I would be able to come back soon after I graduate, this time with my own orchestra, to perform again in the great Hill Auditorium in front of the wonderful audience of Ann Arbor.”