“Music should startle people and reach deep down inside them forcing them to reflect. It should never be merely „comfortable“, never fossilized, never soothing.”

This is Helmuth Rilling´s „Credo“ - born in 1933 in Stuttgart - conductor, pedagogue and an ambassador for  J.S. Bach worldwide.

 

In 1954 Helmuth Rilling founded the Gächinger Kantorei and 11 years later in 1965, founded the Bach Collegium Stuttgart as the choir´s regular orchestral partner. It was  from that time that Rilling began his intensive involvement with the works of Johann Sebastian Bach which has linked composer and conductor together ever since.

In addition Rilling has been a fervent advocate of hitherto neglected romantic choral music as well as commissioning and performing contemporary choral music as was the case in 2000 when four new compositions from leading contemporary composers were commissioned on the theme of the „Passion“.

 

Rilling, together with his house ensembles or as a guest conductor is active on the international concert podium, performing regularly throughout Europe, USA and Canada. Highlights include a special friendship dating back some 25 years with the Israel Philharmonic and since 1970 Rilling has been the Artistic director of the Oregon Bach Festival which has since become one of the USA´s most prestigious music festivals.

 

Furthering his devotion to Bach, in 1981 Rilling founded the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart“ dedicated to furthering the multiple music and personality of J.S. Bach through public concerts, masterclasses for singers and conductors, symposiums, academies worldwide dedicated to certain aspects of Bach´s music, in addition to special annual projects such as the „Stuttgart Bach Week“ and the „European Music Festival Stuttgart“.

Of special importance to Rilling is the encouragement of young musicians and in 2001 he founded the „Festival Choir and Orchestra of the European Music Festival Stuttgart“. This ensemble, consisting of choir and orchestra, draws on the participation and young talent of  musicians from 25 different nationalities.

 

Combining pedagogue and conductor, Rilling has devised a system of „lecture concerts „ in which he says he „peers over the composer´s shoulder“ as he explains to the audience certain aspects of a composer´s  work by  means of musical examples.

 

Testament to his inexhaustible activity are hundreds of CD, radio and TV recordings. Between 1970 - 1984 he was the first musician to record all of Bach´s Cantatas. For the Bach Year 2000 his was the guiding hand behind the International Bachakademie´s mammoth project to record all Bach´s works on 172 CDs - a project that has received the highest international recognition. 

 

Among many prizes Helmuth Rilling has  been awarded the the UNESCO International Music Prize in 1994 and the Theodor Heuss Prize in 1995. In 2003 he became an Honorary Member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences. He won a coveted Grammy Award in 2000 for his recording of  Krzystof Penderecki´s Credo and was again nominated in 2001 for his recording of Wolfgang Rihm´s Deus Passus.

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