Biography
This page uses content from the Herbert Blomstedt biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Herbert Blomstedt, a prominent orchestral conductor, was born 1927 in Springfield, Massachusetts to Swedish parents and moved to Sweden at age two. He studied at the Stockholm Royal College of Music and the University of Uppsala, followed by studies of contemporary music at Darmstadt in 1949, Baroque music with Paul Sacher at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and further conducting studies with Igor Markevitch, Jean Morel at the Juilliard School, and Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood's Berkshire Music Center.
He won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize in 1953 and the Salzburg Conducting Competition in 1955.
Maestro Blomstedt is most noted for his performances of German and Austrian music, such as Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Bruckner and R. Strauss, and Scandinavian music, such as Grieg, Sibelius and Nielsen.
A devout Seventh-day Adventist, Blomstedt refuses to rehearse on Saturdays (the Sabbath), though concerts do not count as work to him, so are acceptable.
He has been Music Director or Principal Conductor of the Norrköping Symphony (beginning 1954), Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (1962-1968), Danish Radio Symphony (1967-1977), Swedish Radio Symphony (1977-1982), Dresden Staatskapelle (1975-1985), San Francisco Symphony (1985-1995), North German Radio Symphony (1996-1998) and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (1998-2005).
Maestro Blomstedt is currently Conductor Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony and Honorary Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
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