“Music and music and peace, justice and love”: The Saeculum Glashütte Original Music Festival Prize 2009 awarded to Gustavo Dudamel
On Saturday, May 23rd, the sixth award-giving ceremony of the Glashütte Original SAECULUM Music Festival Prize took place in the world-famous Dresden Semperoper.
The prize, which is worth 25,000 EUR, has been sponsored by the Glashütte Original manufactory since 2004 and is awarded as part of the Dresden Music Festival.
This year, the coveted prize went to the young, up-and-coming conductor:
Gustavo Dudamel
On Saturday evening, the 28-year-old Venezuelan national was presented with the award by the Managing Director of Glashütte Original, Günter Wiegand (photo right) and by the Director of the Dresden Music Festival, Jan Vogler (photo centre).
The honour paid to Dudamel indicates a new direction for the Saeculum Prize. Up to now, it has been used to honour an artist’s life work, “saeculum” being the Latin word for an age or generation. This means that the musician was primarily honoured not as a shooting star of the classical music world but much more for his commitment to the educational programme El Sistema. This consists of a network of music schools and orchestras in Venezuela. With classical music, children and young people from impoverished backgrounds can learn to find direction in their lives. The prize is there to buy instruments for the orchestra in Venezuela, exclaimed a grateful Gustavo Dudamel. El Sistema is working on a social level, trying to find peaceful solutions to problems. Some of the money is also expected to go to projects in Los Angeles and in Scotland. It’s all about transmitting sensitivity and art to a new generation, explained Dudamel. “That is the most important thing – music and music and peace, justice and love”.
After the award ceremony, the spirited young conductor expressed his thanks with a rousing concert together with the Concertgebouw Orchester from Amsterdam.
From his conductor’s podium, Gustavo Dudamel allowed the orchestra to play freely, thereby awakening its full, characteristic elegance.
At the end of Sergei Prokofiev’s fifth symphony, the audience paid loud tribute to the conductor and the orchestra with standing ovations.
Impressions from the subsequent reception in the elegant atmosphere of the Semperoper:
Prize-winner Gustavo Dudamel proudly showing off his prize and ...
... talking shop with the managing directors of Glashütte Original, Mister Günter Wiegand (photo left) and Mister Thomas Meier (photo right) ...
... and then about the Saeculum with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
from left to right: Jan Vogler, Günter Wiegand, Gustavo Dudamel, Thomas Meier, Gerd Uecker (Director of the Semperoper Dresden)
from left to right: Gustavo Dudamel, Alexander Prinz von Sachsen, Christoph Amend (chief editor of ZEIT magazine), Mira Wang (cellist), Jan Vogler
The Glashütte Original SAECULUM Music Festival Prize
This year’s SAECULUM Glashütte Original Music Festival Prize was once again made by two trainees at the Alfred Helwig School of Watchmaking. The School, which is part of the Glashütte Original factory, trains twelve watchmakers and three toolmakers every year.
The form of the prize symbolizes in inimitable manner its Saxon origins and the craft of watchmaking. The flying Tourbillon with its 18 tiny weighted screws demonstrates the virtuosity of these watchmakers. It is regarded as a symbol of the highest level of the art of watchmaking and was developed in Glashütte about 1920.
The base of the prize is made of fine Elbe sandstone and comes from the Saxon Switzerland mountain range. This material is characteristic of the unique appearance of the buildings in Dresden’s Old City.
Taken together, these two components – the sophisticated Tourbillon and the solid base of Elbe sandstone – form a symbol which simultaneously combines both continuity and immortality.
Best regards,
Ernie Romers
www.watchuseek.com
On Saturday, May 23rd, the sixth award-giving ceremony of the Glashütte Original SAECULUM Music Festival Prize took place in the world-famous Dresden Semperoper.
The prize, which is worth 25,000 EUR, has been sponsored by the Glashütte Original manufactory since 2004 and is awarded as part of the Dresden Music Festival.
This year, the coveted prize went to the young, up-and-coming conductor:
Gustavo Dudamel
On Saturday evening, the 28-year-old Venezuelan national was presented with the award by the Managing Director of Glashütte Original, Günter Wiegand (photo right) and by the Director of the Dresden Music Festival, Jan Vogler (photo centre).
The honour paid to Dudamel indicates a new direction for the Saeculum Prize. Up to now, it has been used to honour an artist’s life work, “saeculum” being the Latin word for an age or generation. This means that the musician was primarily honoured not as a shooting star of the classical music world but much more for his commitment to the educational programme El Sistema. This consists of a network of music schools and orchestras in Venezuela. With classical music, children and young people from impoverished backgrounds can learn to find direction in their lives. The prize is there to buy instruments for the orchestra in Venezuela, exclaimed a grateful Gustavo Dudamel. El Sistema is working on a social level, trying to find peaceful solutions to problems. Some of the money is also expected to go to projects in Los Angeles and in Scotland. It’s all about transmitting sensitivity and art to a new generation, explained Dudamel. “That is the most important thing – music and music and peace, justice and love”.
After the award ceremony, the spirited young conductor expressed his thanks with a rousing concert together with the Concertgebouw Orchester from Amsterdam.
From his conductor’s podium, Gustavo Dudamel allowed the orchestra to play freely, thereby awakening its full, characteristic elegance.
At the end of Sergei Prokofiev’s fifth symphony, the audience paid loud tribute to the conductor and the orchestra with standing ovations.
Impressions from the subsequent reception in the elegant atmosphere of the Semperoper:
Prize-winner Gustavo Dudamel proudly showing off his prize and ...
... talking shop with the managing directors of Glashütte Original, Mister Günter Wiegand (photo left) and Mister Thomas Meier (photo right) ...
... and then about the Saeculum with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
from left to right: Jan Vogler, Günter Wiegand, Gustavo Dudamel, Thomas Meier, Gerd Uecker (Director of the Semperoper Dresden)
from left to right: Gustavo Dudamel, Alexander Prinz von Sachsen, Christoph Amend (chief editor of ZEIT magazine), Mira Wang (cellist), Jan Vogler
The Glashütte Original SAECULUM Music Festival Prize
This year’s SAECULUM Glashütte Original Music Festival Prize was once again made by two trainees at the Alfred Helwig School of Watchmaking. The School, which is part of the Glashütte Original factory, trains twelve watchmakers and three toolmakers every year.
The form of the prize symbolizes in inimitable manner its Saxon origins and the craft of watchmaking. The flying Tourbillon with its 18 tiny weighted screws demonstrates the virtuosity of these watchmakers. It is regarded as a symbol of the highest level of the art of watchmaking and was developed in Glashütte about 1920.
The base of the prize is made of fine Elbe sandstone and comes from the Saxon Switzerland mountain range. This material is characteristic of the unique appearance of the buildings in Dresden’s Old City.
Taken together, these two components – the sophisticated Tourbillon and the solid base of Elbe sandstone – form a symbol which simultaneously combines both continuity and immortality.
Best regards,
Ernie Romers
www.watchuseek.com
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