Competing for a prestigious role at the Hallé, the first challenge is to keep calm

'I faced the fact that, okay, I don't like that I'm nervous, that I'm feeling this; it’s not very pleasant. But I have to be my own friend'

Dear members — all 2,016 of you now, after we triumphantly stormed past the 2,000-mark yesterday morning. Today’s story is a classic Mill feature: a thoughtful, skilful read about something that happened in the city last week that you probably didn’t hear about; a piece that takes you inside the room for a high-stakes contest between incredibly talented competitors from all over the world, some of whom will one day be household names in classical music.

We asked the music writer Hugh Morris, a longtime Mill contributor (he also writes regular stories for a much less prestigious publication called the New York Times) to go and watch the Hallé Orchestra’s Conductors Competition, the final of which was being held publicly for the first time in Bridgewater Hall. We think that even if you don’t listen to classical music or know anything about conducting, you will very likely enjoy his piece because it’s only partly about music. In large part, it’s about brave young people trying to battle t…