Kurt Masur

Member of the Honorary Committee

Kurt Masur studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig before starting his professional life as a solo repetiteur and Kapellmeister in Halle. He gained a worldwide reputation as Chief Conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Under his direction between 1970 and 1996, they developed what became known and admired by musicians and orchestras the world over as the "Gewandhaus sound.”

The name of Kurt Masur is also inseparably linked to the events of the peaceful revolution in Leipzig in 1989. From 1991 to 2002, Kurt Masur headed the New York Philharmonic; then he became Chief Conductor of the Orchestre National de France in Paris. Since 2000, he has been Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Honorary Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for life. Since 2004 he has been chairman of the association supporting the Beethoven House in Bonn.

Kurt Masur received one of the Federal Republic of Germany’s highest medals from President Horst Köhler in September 2007 (Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland).

(September 2007)