Can the Baltimore Symphony spot talent or what?
That could be a marketing department's take-away from the news that two conductors with ties to the orchestra are among this year's recipients of grants from the Solti Foundation U.S., an organization devoted to the memory of famed conductor Georg Solti and to fostering young talent.
The big prize this year, the $25,000 Solti Conducting Fellow, goes to Vladimir Kulenovic, resident conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and music director of the Lake Forest Symphony in Illinois. In 2012, Kulenovic received a Career Assistance Award from the foundation, which may well give an extra boost to the confidence of other conductors chosen for one of these career-boosting grants.
Among the nine conductors who are receiving this year's Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards (the total for the program is about $90,000) are:
Nicholas Hersh, current assistant conductor of the BSO, who recently made his unexpected debut leading a subscription program, filling in for an ailing Yan Pascal Tortelier;
and Joseph Young, who in 2007 was the first recipient of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra-Peabody Institute Conducting Fellowship and is currently assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony and music director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra.