The public final concert was held at the Alte Oper Frankfurt on 9 November 2008. The three finalists took the rostrum of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and directed the overtures to Rossini's "William Tell" (Andreas Hotz), Weber's "Oberon" (Shizuo Kuwahara), Verdi's "The Force of Destiny" (Eugene Tzigane) and excerpts from Igor Strawinsky's "Firebird" suite. Winner Shizuo Kuwahara closed the exciting morning with his conducting of Michail Glinka's overture from "Ruslan and Ludmilla". The Frankfurt audience was already familiar with Kuwahara, as he placed second at the last Solti competition. Third-place finisher Andreas Hotz, from Darmstadt in the greater Frankfurt area, is a fellow of the Academy Opera Today, a support programme for young opera musicians initiated by the Deutsche Bank Foundation.

The first-place finisher was awarded a cash prize of 15,000 euros, while the second and third-place finishers won 10,000 and 5,000 euros, respectively. In addition, the winners of the first and second prizes will be invited to conduct the Frankfurter Museumsorchester and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, along with other German and international orchestras.

The fourth round of the competition once again set a new record for participants: 540 young men and women from over 70 countries had signed up for the competition by the application deadline, 6 June 2008. 24 of them were invited to the two preliminary rounds with the Frankfurt Museumsorchester from 3-6 November; the three finalists were chosen based on their performances. These figures are an impressive confirmation of the international reputation of the Solti competition.

The International Conductors' Competition is a joint project by the Deutsche Bank Foundation, Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Frankfurt Museum Society e.V., Hessischer Rundfunk and the Frankfurt Opera, under the patronage of Lady Valerie Solti.

The conductor’s suggestive body language, leading an orchestra comprised of artistic individuals – these skills can only be developed in the extant situation of the concert. The competition awards valuable experiences: the participants must demonstrate in a limited amount of time that they not only have excellent stroke technique, but also the personality to communicate their aesthetic notions to the orchestra musicians.

Young conductors rarely have the opportunity to gather experience with orchestras or measure themselves against the competition. The International Conductors’ Competition Sir Georg Solti offers such a forum for tomorrow’s elite. Past years' winners find themselves in high demand on the world's great stages, once again confirming that the Solti conductors' competition has attained a high degree of recognition in the music world, giving a big boost to an international career.

The Deutsche Bank Foundation will continue its commitment to this project in future and will support the 5th round of the competition in the year 2010. Tessen von Heydebreck, Chairman of the Deutsche Bank Foundation, explains: "The conductors' competition has become one of the most important of its kind. We are proud and excited to be a founding partner of this competition, and look forward to supporting young, highly qualified talents and promote top international musical performances in Frankfurt in the coming years.