Born in the USA to Swedish parents, conductor Herbert Blomstedt began his musical education at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and at the University of Uppsala. He later studied conducting at the Juilliard School in New York, contemporary music in Darmstadt and renaissance and baroque music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He worked with Igor Markevitch in Salzburg and Leonard Bernstein in Tanglewood.
More than 60 years ago, in February 1954, Herbert Blomstedt made his debut as conductor with the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. He has served as chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic and the Swedish and Danish Radio Orchestras. From 1975 to 1985 he was chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden. Together they toured over twenty European countries, the USA and Japan, and their regular collaboration continues to date.
Herbert Blomstedt is Conductor Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony where he served as Music Director from 1985 to 1995. 1998 he assumed the position of Music Director of the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig, a post which he held until 2005. As Honorary Conductor of this orchestra, he returns to Leipzig regularly.
I invite you now to listen to Herbert Blomstedt conduct the music of Haydn and Bruckner:
