“Music moves and connects us.”—Helmuth Rilling
Helmuth Rilling believes passionately in the power of music to cross political and ethnic boundaries. The Maestro’s “vision” to overcome barriers and to build bridges of understanding among peoples through the universal language of music is evidenced in his worldwide Bachakademies and workshops, particularly among young musicians. Through his work at the Internationale Bachakadmie Stuttgart, which he founded in 1981, Rilling has established Bachakademies in Athens, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Caraças, Cracow, Moscow, Prague, Santiago de Compostela and Tokyo. Helmuth Rilling, the Principal Conductor and Master Teacher at the Toronto Bach Festival, was born in 1933 in Stuttgart, Germany. His formal musical education took place at the State Music Academy, Stuttgart and the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 1953 he founded the Gächinger Kantorei, and in 1965 its permanent instrumental partner, the Bach Collegium Stuttgart.
Pre-eminent among international musicians, Maestro Helmuth Rilling has consistently dedicated his musical career to the service of reconciliation with Israel. He was the first German who, in 1976 was allowed to conduct the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and who, with the Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart, sang the Israeli National Anthem in Hebrew for Prime Minister Golda Meir. The occasion is still viewed as a watershed in cultural relations between Germany and Israel. Since then, Rilling has conducted 92 concerts in Israel.
Recipient of the 1994 UNESCO IMC Music Prize and the 1995 Theodor Heuss Prize for ‘Acts of Reconciliation’, Rilling was recognised for his long commitment to furthering peace and reconciliation. In 2002 he was further honoured with The Scopus Award by the Friends Association of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and in February 2004, he received the Otto Hirsch Medal awarded by the city of Stuttgart’s Society for Christian Jewish Cooperation and the Israelite Religious Community for his contribution to Christian-Jewish understanding. In January of 2006 Rilling and the Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart made their 9th tour of Israel.
Internationally recognised as a scholar and performer of Bach and his music, Helmuth Rilling is one of Germany’s cultural icons. He has guest conducted the major orchestras of Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, and North America; he has commissioned contemporary composers such as Penderecki, Arvo Pärt, Wolfgang Rihm, and Tan Dun. While considering himself a friend of the Romantics, the benchmark of his career has been his study and performance of Bach’s great choral works. Between 1970 and 1985 he recorded all 200 Bach church cantatas. In 2001 he received the Cannes Classical Award for the Hännsler ‘Edition Bachakademie’, 172 CDs of the complete works of J.S. Bach, released in 2000 in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death. On May 14th, 2004, Helmuth Rilling was presented with the Johann Sebastian Bach Medaille by the City of Leipzig in recognition of his dedication to the promotion and performance of Bach’s works throughout his professional career.
In 2001 Rilling won a coveted Grammy for his Hänssler recording of Penderecki’s Credo. During his visit to the University of Toronto in 2002, he received the Faculty of Music’s Distinguished Visitor Award. On the occasion of his 70th birthday in May 2003, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany. In October 2003 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a Foreign Honorary Fellow. Of particular importance to the Maestro is the Oregon Bach Festival which he helped to found in 1969, and which celebrated its 35th Anniversary in 2004.
