Bernard Haitink
With an international career now spanning six decades, Amsterdam-born Bernard Haitink is one of the most renowned conductors of our time. First engaged by the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in 1954, Bernard Haitink began his meteoric career in 1956 at the age of just 27, when he substituted for an ailing Carlo Maria Giulini and first conducted the orchestra with whom he would enjoy a long and highly successful collaboration: the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. From 1961 to 1988 he was Music Director and Principal Conductor of the orchestra – a position he initially shared with Eugen Jochum. Other positions held by him included Music Director and Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (1967-1979), of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (1978-1988), of London's Royal Opera House Covent Garden (1988-2002) and of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (2006- 2010). Bernard Haitink is “Conductor Laureate” of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, “Conductor Emeritus” of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and "Patron" of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 1958 he has had a cordial working relationship with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks: the live recording of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, published on the BR-KLASSIK label, was awarded the ECHO Klassik 2013 and the “Toblacher Komponierhäuschen” prize. Bernard Haitink has been a Knight of the British Empire since 1977; in 1991 he received the “Erasmus” award, the highest cultural award of the Netherlands; and in 2007 the magazine Musical America named him “Musician of the Year”. He is a Companion of Honour of the United Kingdom and a holder of the Order of the House of Orange-Nassau.