Honorary OBE for Former Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
HM the Queen has awarded an Honorary OBE to Mr Sakari Oramo in recognition of his services to music from his time with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
The honour - Honorary Officer of the most Excellent Order of the British Empire will be presented to him in Helsinki on Wednesday 13 May 2009 by the British Ambassador to Finland, Dr Valerie Caton.
Sakari Oramo was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in September 1998, and was subsequently appointed Music Director in September 1999. Oramo stepped down as Music Director of the CBSO in 2008, becoming Principal Guest Conductor for the 2008/09 season, after ten hugely successful years at the helm. One of the highlights of his tenure at the CBSO was Igorfest - a 4-year cycle of the complete works of Stravinsky, which concludes tomorrow night with a performance of Stravinsky’s iconic work The Rite of Spring.
Sakari Oramo is a prolific recording artist. His recording for Hyperion of the complete Saint-Saëns Piano Concertos with the CBSO and Stephen Hough was awarded most popular recording of the past 30 years at last year's Classic FM Gramophone Awards. Also with the CBSO, Oramo has recorded a complete Sibelius Symphony Cycle for Erato; for Warner Classics a disc of Grieg and Sibelius songs with the soprano Karita Mattila and all the Rachmaninov piano concertos with Nikolai Lugansky.
Performances and recordings of British music were a particular feature of Sakari’s tenure, including the rediscovery of music by English composer John Foulds. Oramo brought audiences new experiences of music from this highly original composer, as well as two critically acclaimed CDs of his works.
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