Conductor, composer and pianist André Previn has received a number of awards and honours for his outstanding musical accomplishments, including both the Austrian and German Cross of Merit, the Kennedy Center's Lifetime Achievement Award and the Glenn Gould Prize. In May 2008 he was presented with the LSO's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in September 2008 he was honoured with the Gramophone Classic FM Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also received several Grammy awards for recordings, including the CD of his violin concerto Anne-Sophie and Bernstein’s Serenade featuring Anne-Sophie Mutter together with the Boston and London Symphony orchestras.

 

A regular guest with the world’s major orchestras, both in concert and on recordings, André Previn frequently works with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic. In addition, he has held the chief artistic posts with such orchestras as the Houston Symphony, London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony and Royal Philharmonic orchestras.

 

As a pianist, André Previn enjoys recording and performing song recitals, chamber music and jazz. He has given recitals with Renée Fleming at the Lincoln Center and with Barbara Bonney at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He regularly gives chamber music concerts with the Emerson String Quartet, as well as with members of the Boston Symphony and London Symphony orchestras, and the Vienna Philharmonic.

 

André Previn has enjoyed a number of successes as a composer. His first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire, was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque.  Recent highlights include the premiere of his Double Concerto for Violin and Double Bass for Anne-Sophie Mutter and Roman Patkoló, premiered by the Boston Symphony in April 2007, receiving its European premiere this evening. His Harp Concerto commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony, premiered in March 2008; his work Owls was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in October 2008; his second opera, Brief Encounter, commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, will be premiered in 2009; and his double concerto for violin and viola, written for Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yuri Bashmet, will also receive its premiere next year.

 

For his 80th birthday in 2009, Carnegie Hall will be presenting four concerts which showcase the diversity of his career. Other highlights this season include a three-week residency with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and concerts with the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh Symphony, Boston Symphony and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras, and Accademia Nazionale de Santa Cecilia. He returns to conduct the LSO on 25 April 2010.

 

André Previn records for Deutsche Grammophon. His concert music is published by G Schirmer, Inc and Chester Music Ltd.