Sigmund Thorp has been employed at the Norwegian Academy of Music for almost three decades, with responsibility for the education of tomorrow's conductors. In addition to working with the classical and romantic repertoire, Thorp has been the artistic leader of the Norwegian Academy Sinfonietta for more than 24 years and has conducted more than 350 works by contemporary composers, of which numerous national and international first performances.    Thorp is currently Visiting Professor at National Taiwan Normal University, one of Taiwan’s elite institutions in higher education. In addition to educating conductors up to Doctorate level, he is responsible for educating the NTNU Symphony Orchestra. The current academic year, the orchestra has performed two highly successful concerts under Mr. Thorp’ baton, of which the NTNU Centenary concert at the National Concert Hall, Taipei was a highlight.  He has also been a jury member of the Jeunesses Musicales International Conducting Competition, Bucharest since 2015, and he is currently the Jury President of the competition. The competition attracts conductors from the whole world and the winners from recent years have been holding positions as assistant conductors at Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (Nodoka Okisawa), Boston Symphony Orchestra (Yu-An Chang) and Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Jun-Ping Qian). Other prize winners are pursuing important international careers. Mr. Thorp has also been invited as jury member for the Seoul International Conducting Competition 2021 and as a jury member for the pre-election of candidates to the new conceptual international conducting competition “Orchestra’s Conductor”  ​ https://orchestrasconductor.com/ https://www.bucharestcompetition.ro/jury-2021/ Sigmund Thorp has been guest professor at Trinity College of Music (London), The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Conservatorio Guiseppe Tartini (Trieste), Kunstuniversität Graz, Hanns Eisler Institut Berlin, UPH University in Jakarta, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Seul National University, and Korea National University of Arts. In addition, he has given numerous masterclasses in Romania, Italy, Taiwan, Korea and Indonesia. Based on the theories and practices of Dr. Walter Hügler (Trossingen) Thorp has developed “The Anatomy of Conducting – A method for improving conducting technique”. The method has proven to be highly effective for musical projection and for non-verbal communication between the musicians and the conductor. Sigmund Thorp has also had a strong focus on the connection between creativity, body movement and conducting, and from 1999 until 2015 he studied regularly with one of the world’s foremost experts in this field, Professor Emeritus Joe Gifford at Boston University. Thorp’s recent research has documented a strong significance of the nonverbal communication in connection with conducting, and he has also been giving lectures on the topic at several universities. Thorp studied orchestral conducting with Normal Del Mar and Christopher Adey at the Royal College of Music in London. During his studies, he won several prizes, including “The Tagore Gold Medal”, as the best male student 1986. He was the 1st Prize winner of the Biel International Conducting Competition 1989, and he also won 2nd prize in the Austrian-Hungarian International Conducting Competition in Pecz, 1994.