The background for this project which lasted until 2009 is the internationally striking lack of young, professional conductors. Only a few universities offer a qualified training in which young ambitious musicians are given the chance to be taught by an internationally renowned conductor, how to lead an orchestra. To avoid that even first-class orchestras and ensembles suffer from a lack of young conductors, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Allianz Kulturstiftung had founded an initiative, which enabled the young talents to attend a master course with Esa-Pekka Salonen (Philharmonia Orchestra London) and Vladimir Jurowski (London Philharmonic Orchestra).

For 2007/2008 following conductors had been selected: Philippe Bach (Switzerland), Benjamin Northey (Australia) and Jérémie Rhorer (France). The young conductors had been given the chance to spend a year accompanying the rehearsals and concerts of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra and conduct a rehearsal themselves under the auspices of their maestro.

Every year a concert at the Royal Festival Hall, which is open to the public, marks the end of the Conductors' Academy , in which the candidates conduct a work which they have rehearsed with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Since then some of the former participants in the International Conductors' Academy toured successfully with well known international orchestras and conducted at different internationally renowned music festivals.

The Final Concert of the participants of the International Conductors' Academy took place in the Royal Festival Hall in London on June, 13th 2008. The violinist Yossiv Ivanov was supported by the top-level instrumentation of the Philharmonic Orchestra. They performed Maurice Ravel's "Mother Goose", Sergej Prokofiev's Violin Concerto 1 in D and Igor Stravinsky's Symphony in C.