As assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, David Afkham is said to be one of the most inspired young talents to appear from Germany in a generation. He is currently the first «Bernard Haitink Fund for Young Talent» recipient and works regularly with his mentor Bernard Haitink and the Chicago Symphony and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras.

In the 2009/10 season, David will conduct the Gustavo Mahler Jugend Orchester, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Jena Philharmonic and the Wuerttembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, among others. He has diverse conducting experiences including the London Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Civic Orchestra and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. He has also guested with the Staatskapelle Weimar, Critical Orchestra Berlin and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. For the past two years, David has been the artistic director and chief conductor of the KHG-Symphony-Orchestra Freiburg.

Born 1983 in Freiburg, Germany, he received his first piano and violin lessons at the age of six. In 2002 he won first prize in the solo-piano category of the German National Piano Competition «Jugend Musiziert». David Afkham began his musical studies (piano, music-theory and conducting) at the age of 15 at the University of Music, Freiburg. Since 2005 he studied conducting at the Liszt School of Music in Weimar, Germany. He is a conducting fellow of the "Richard Wagner Association" Bayreuth and recently became a member of the «Conductor's Forum» of the German Music Council.

David Afkham is the winner of the 2008 International Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London and lives both in Weimar and London.

27 March 2010