Happy Birthday, Maestro!

For 35 years, Herbert Blomstedt has enjoyed a close relationship with the Bamberg Symphony: he has given some 200 concerts with our Orchestra, in eight European and Asian countries, and since 2006 he has been our Honorary Conductor for life.

Herbert Blomstedt is now aged ninety, yet he stands at the head of the Bamberg Symphony as ready for anything and raring to go as ever – in fact he seems more youthful than many a younger colleague. There is not a single member of our Orchestra who does not love, cherish and honour him beyond measure.

Deep concentration on music's essentials, great gusto for every detail of a musical score, however small, encyclopaedic knowledge, unquenchable curiosity for all that constitutes the »fine arts«, music, literature, history: we are constantly captivated afresh by everything about him. Patrician, charming, modest, Herbert Blomstedt exercises his exceptional artistry without fuss, with energy, discipline and diligence, but never with routine, so setting us all an example and spurring us on – in truth, not only musically.

Our 90th birthday present to him is a tour of the great cathedrals of Bamberg, Würzburg, Passau and St. Florian, with the 5th Symphony by Anton Bruckner, a composer with whom his own remarkable spirituality gives him a feeling of particular affinity.

And to mark this day, our Orchestra has produced a very special birthday serenade for him.

Dear Herbert Blomstedt,
Wherever you may be on this day – we are thinking of you!