Rilling awarded Herbert von Karajan Prize

By James Bash

BADEN BADEN, GER — Helmuth Rilling, artistic director of the
Oregon Bach Festival, has another feather in his cap, the Herbert
von Karajan Music Prize.

Helmuth Rilling, artistic director of the Oregon Bach Festival
at the University of Oregon, has been awarded the Herbert von
Karajan Music Prize. The annual award is presented to an
outstanding international musician in honor of the celebrated 20th
century Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan by the Festspielhaus
Baden-Baden, Germany’s largest concert hall.

First awarded in 2003 to the German violinist Anne-Sophie
Mutter, the prize includes 50,000 Euros in prize money, which must
be used by the recipient to help further the careers of young
musicians. Other recipients include the Berlin Philharmonic,
Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin, and conductor-pianist Daniel
Barenboim.

“He is an outstanding personality of the international music
scene and a tireless ambassador for the music of Johann Sebastian
Bach, ” said the director of the Festspielhaus, Andreas
Mölich-Zebhauser, on Thursday, March 10.

Helmuth Rilling has created opportunities for young artists
since 1953, when, as a college student, he founded the Gachinger
Kantorei, the Stuttgart choir he still leads today. At the Oregon
Bach Festival, he has mentored more than a thousand young
conductors through his master class, which has been a core program
of the festival since 1970. He was instrumental in forming the
Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy, which each year gives 85
high school singers from across the U.S. the opportunity to learn
and perform among the OBF’s professional artists.