Renowned conductor Herbert Blomstedt to give presentation at La Sierra

On Fri., March 9, Blomstedt will give a talk and show his video performance directing the Danish National Symphony playing Johannes Brahms’ “Requiem.” The event will be held at 7 p.m. at the La Sierra University Church. Admission is free with a suggested donation of $15 to support La Sierra’s music programs.

Blomstedt will lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall on March 16, 17 and 18 in performances of works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Jean Sibelius.

Blomstedt served as the San Francisco Symphony’s music director from 1985 until 1995. Under his leadership the orchestra gained worldwide acclaim, touring Europe, Asia and the United States and performing festival concerts in Salzburg, Edinburgh, and Lucerne. The symphony’s recordings on the London label captured top awards, including France’s Grand Prix du Disque, Britain’s Gramophone Award, and two Grammys. Between 1975 and 1985 he directed the Dresden Staatskapelle and led the group on its first tours of the United States.

Blomstedt has also held positions as music director of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish Radio Symphony, and Swedish Radio Symphony. He has appeared as guest conductor with many of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the NHK Symphony of Tokyo.

At age 90 he continues to be in great demand as a guest conductor of top orchestras around the world. A February 2017 article in the New York Times noted that while turning 90 that year, the maestro was scheduled to conduct more than 90 concerts. He celebrated his birthday last July 11. In an article that published that month in Spectrum Magazine, the conducting giant, a dedicated Seventh-day Adventist, said he finds respite during the Sabbath hours from his grueling schedule leading the world’s top orchestras, traveling internationally and juggling media interviews.

Maestro Blomstedt has a long-standing history with La Sierra University, a Seventh-day Adventist institution. Each summer from 1970-1985, he traveled from Dresden, East Germany, where he conducted the Dresden State Opera Orchestra, to the La Sierra campus to hold the Herbert Blomstedt Institute of Orchestral Conducting master classes. La Sierra University offers the Herbert Blomstedt Endowed Scholarship in recognition of his contribution to the university and to assist outstanding young performers who enroll as music majors.

Blomstedt made his conducting debut in 1954 with the Stockholm Philharmonic after studying at Tanglewood in 1953 with Leonard Bernstein and receiving the coveted Koussevitsky Conducting Prize. He has received many honors, including membership in the Royal Musical Academy of Stockholm where Beethoven was a member, and many honorary doctorates.