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Ravinia Festival Music Director James Conlon has been honored with a 2011 ECHO Klassik Award, one of the most established and well known music awards in the world, in the category “Music DVD Recording of the Year (Documentary)” for the film A Surprise in Texas: The Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The award will be presented to Conlon, as well as the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, at the Konzerthaus Berlin on October 2, 2011.
The documentary follows Conlon and the competitors of the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition during its rigorous three-week competition and offers an intricate view into the inner world of the most prestigious piano competitions. Some of the pianists featured in the documentary are Haochen Zang, Nobuyuki Tsujii, and Yeol Eum Son.
The last time Conlon received the ECHO Klassik award was in 2002 in the category of “Editorial Achievement of the Year” for his nine recording series of Alexander Zemlinksy’s operas and orchestral works with the Gürzenich Orchestra-Cologne Philharmonic. The ECHO Klassik Awards are annually presented by the German Phono Akademie—the cuturial institute of the German music industry association. Those who receive the ECHO Klassick are selected by a jury of individuals in politics, arts and media, and the classical division of the German music industry association. The Jury decides on the recipients of the award based off of the artist’s quality and popular success of their performances, reflecting both the opinions of critics and music connoisseurs.
Congratulations James Conlon on your continued success!