Ehrendirigent Gewandhausorchester Leipzig / Staatskapelle Dresden
/ Bamberger Symphoniker
Conductor Laureate San Francisco Symphony
Honorary Conductor Danish National Symphony Orchestra / Swedish
Radio Symphony Orchestra
Honorary Conductor Laureate NHK Symphony Orchestra

Noble, charming, sober, modest. Such qualities may play a major role in human
coexistence and are certainly appreciated. However, they are rather atypical for
extraordinary personalities such as conductors. Whatever the general public’s
notion of a conductor may be, Herbert Blomstedt is an exception, precisely because
he possesses those very qualities which seemingly have so little to do with a
conductor’s claim to power. That he disproves the usual clichés in many respects
should certainly not lead to the assumption that he does not have the power to
assert his clearly defined musical goals. Anyone who has attended Herbert
Blomstedt’s rehearsals and experienced his concentration on the essence of the
music, the precision in the phrasing of musical facts and circumstances as they
appear in the score, the tenacity regarding the implementation of an aesthetic view,
is likely to have been amazed at how few despotic measures were required to this
end. Basically, Herbert Blomstedt has always represented that type of artist whose
professional competence and natural authority make all external emphasis
superfluous. His work as a conductor is inseparably linked to his religious and
human ethos, and his interpretations combine great faithfulness to the score and
analytical precision, with a soulfulness that awakens the music to pulsating life. In
the more than sixty years of his career, he has acquired the unrestricted respect of
the musical world.

Born in the USA to Swedish parents and educated in Uppsala, New York, Darmstadt
and Basel, Herbert Blomstedt gave his conducting debut in 1954 with the Stockholm
Philharmonic Orchestra and subsequently served as Chief Conductor of the Oslo
Philharmonic, the Swedish and Danish Radio Orchestras and the Staatskapelle
Dresden. Later, he became Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, Chief
Conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig. His former orchestras in San Francisco, Leipzig, Copenhagen,
Stockholm and Dresden as well as the Bamberg Symphony and the NHK Symphony
Orchestra all honoured him with the title of Conductor Laureate. Since 2019, he is a
Honorary Member of the Vienna Philharmonic.

Herbert Blomstedt holds several Honorary Doctorates, is an elected member of the
Royal Swedish Music Academy and was awarded the German Great Cross of Merit
with Star. Over the years, all leading orchestras around the globe have been
fortunate to secure the services of the highly respected Swedish conductor. At the
high age of 95, he continues to be at the helm of all leading international orchestras
with enormous mental and physical presence, verve and artistic drive.