Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Perahia

Perahia, who has performed in the world’s leading concert halls and festivals, recorded countless albums, and received multiple Gramophone honors and two Grammy awards, received his award from İKSV General Director Görgün Taner and music director Yeşim Gürer Oymak before his joint concert with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields at the Hagia Eirene Museum on June 6.

Perahia has embarked on an ambitious project to edit the complete Beethoven Sonatas for the Henle Urtext Edition. He has also produced and edited numerous hours of recordings of recently discovered master classes by the legendary pianist Alfred Cortot, which resulted in the highly acclaimed Sony CD release, “Alfred Cortot: The Master Classes.”

The pianist is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music and holds honorary doctorates from Leeds University and Duke University. In 2004, he was awarded an honorary KBE by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his outstanding service to music.

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields, one of today’s best chamber orchestras, visited the festival for two concerts. The first concert featured Mozart’s 9th Piano Concerto with Perahia at the piano, as well as Mendelssohn’s last symphony and Schumann’s second, with Perahia on the conductor’s podium.