La Maestra 2026: Three Conductors, One Stage

0000: Three prize-winners, one competition: the 2026 La Maestra captured live at the Philharmonie de Paris with two of France's finest orchestras.

Founded in 2019 by the Paris Mozart Orchestra and the Philharmonie de Paris, La Maestra is the only international conducting competition exclusively for women, a biennial event that has rapidly become one of the most important platforms for emerging conducting talent in the world. Its fourth edition, held in February 2026, drew 225 applications from 50 countries. Sixteen conductors were selected to compete; four reached the final.

This collection brings together three performances from that edition, each featuring one of the competition's prize-winners. In the semi-finals, Slovenian conductor Mojca Lavrenčič and Chinese conductor Jiajing Lai each lead the Paris Mozart Orchestra. In the final, French conductor Alizé Léhon steps up to the Orchestre de Paris, one of Europe's great orchestras, and the ultimate test of the competition.

Lavrenčič, born in Vienna in 1993 and raised in Slovenia, entered as a last-minute replacement and left with five of the competition's seven special prizes alongside the First Prize. Jiajing Lai, born in Hunan in 1991 and trained between Beijing and Cincinnati, was awarded Second Prize by a jury chaired by Oksana Lyniv. Alizé Léhon, 27, received Third Prize and the Génération Opéra Prize, and, weeks later, the “Victoire de la Musique Classique” as “Révélation chef d'orchestre”.

Recording location Philarmonie de Paris, France
Production year 2026
Musical style Classical