Simon Rattle

Simon Rattle (born January 19, 1955, Liverpool, England) is a British conductor well known for his performances of works by Gustav Mahler as well as by Arnold Schoenberg and other composers of the Second Viennese School. Rattle is also recognized for his passionate efforts in music education.

As a boy, Rattle learned to play piano, violin, and percussion. At age 10 he performed as a percussionist with the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (known then as Merseyside Youth Orchestra). He also began conducting at a young age. In 1974, not yet 20 years old, Rattle graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, University of London, having won first prize in the John Player International Conductors’ Competition. That honour paved the way to an assistant conductor position with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (1974–77). From 1977 to 1980 he was the assistant conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. During that period, Rattle conducted his first opera, Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, at the 1977 Glyndebourne Festival in Sussex, England. In 1980 he began an 18-year tenure as principal conductor and artistic adviser (in 1990 title changed to music director) of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). His work there established the orchestra’s reputation, as well as his own. In 1987 he was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). While still with the CBSO in 1992, Rattle also became the principal guest conductor of the British period-instrument ensemble called the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He was made a knight bachelor in 1994.

In 2002 Rattle became the principal conductor and artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The first of many notable actions he took in this position was to convert the orchestra into a foundation and raise the salaries of the musicians. For his opening performance on September 7, 2002, Rattle conducted contemporary composer Thomas Adès’s Asyla and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. Rattle stretched the repertoire of the Berlin Philharmonic to include many 20th-century and contemporary composers as well as more British and American composers in their regular roster of performances. Rattle’s commitment to contemporary music led to unique collaborations with composers, such as Heiner Goebbels and Sofia Gubaidulina, and to crossover performances, as with the jazz musician Wynton Marsalis (Swing Symphony, 2010).

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In 2002 Rattle launched the Berlin Philharmonic’s highly acclaimed education program, which actively reached out to people of all ages and cultural backgrounds in underserved communities to provide access to classical music. Thomas Grube’s 2004 documentary Rhythm Is It! chronicled the 2003 production of the education program’s first annual dance program, Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. In recognition of their music education program, Rattle and the orchestra in 2007 were appointed international UNICEF goodwill ambassadors. That year Rattle also instituted weekly free lunchtime concerts in the foyer of the Philharmonie, the Philharmonic’s concert hall.

Rattle expanded the Berlin Philharmonic’s reach geographically. Trip to Asia (2008), another documentary by Grube, followed the musicians and Rattle on their tour of Asia in 2005, which took them to Beijing for the first time in 26 years, to Korea for the first time in 21 years, and for the first time ever to Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Taiwan. As part of his effort to present classical music to a broader audience, in 2009 Rattle helped launch the Digital Concert Hall, which offered a live-stream of Berlin Philharmonic performances on the Internet (and in 2013 on mobile devices). The Berlin Philharmonic also streamed its 2010 season opening performance in cinemas across Europe. In 2017 Rattle became music director of the London Symphony Orchestra, and the following year he stepped down as conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. He was chosen in 2021 to become chief conductor of both the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Chorus beginning in the 2023–24 concert season.

Rattle made more than 100 recordings. Those of note included George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (1990), which won the International Record Critics’ Award (1990); Johannes Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem (2007), which won a Grammy Award (2008); Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms and Symphony in C (2008), which won the Grammy for best choral performance (2008); Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (2010); and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C Minor (Resurrection) (2011). Rattle received many honours in addition to those already mentioned, including the Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts (1997), Germany’s Comenius Award for commitment to music education for children (2004), the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2009), chevalier of the Legion of Honour awarded by the French government (2010), and the Order of Merit from the queen of England (2014).