Kraków Music Academy honours veteran British conductor
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
28.02.2015 10:00
Sir Neville Marriner has received an honorary doctorate of the Music Academy in Kraków.
Photo: Facebook.com/Akademia Muzyczna w Krakowie
He is widely considered one of the greatest conductors of our time, known primarily as the founder of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
In his thank-you remarks at the ceremony in Kraków, on Friday, he recalled his numerous performances in Poland and meetings with Polish musicians, starting from the concerts with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in the late 1970s to his recent appearances in Katowice, Gdańsk and Warsaw.
Four years ago, Sir Neville conducted, in Poland and on a foreign tour, the I Culture Orchestra, which brought together young musicians from Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Azerbaijan.
Despite his advanced age – he turns 91 on 15 April – Sir Neville remains an active conductor. He said jokingly the other day: “The worst thing for a conductor entering the ‘geriatric’ age is that he is more in demand than decades ago. It is a pity I didn’t have as many invitations for concerts when I was thirty.”
On Sunday, 1 March, he will conduct the Symphony Orchestra of the Kraków Music Academy in Michael Tippet’s Concerto for Double Strings Orchestra and George Bizet’s Symphony No. 1. (mk/rg)