Helmuth Rilling Named Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences

May 8, 2003

Contact George Evano, (541) 346-5667

Oregon Bach Festival conductor and artistic director Helmuth Rilling is among those elected as American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members for 2003.

Rilling is recognized around the world as one of the leading conductors and teachers of the works of J. S. Bach. In 1970 he co-founded the Oregon Bach Festival at the University of Oregon School of Music with UO music professor Royce Saltzman. From a simple workshop for choral musicians, the festival has grown into one of the most expansive celebrations of Bach’s works and influence in America, with a catalog of award-winning compact disc recordings, nationally syndicated broadcasts, internationally recognized performers, Grammy nominations and an annual worldwide audience of 30,000 for its two summer weeks of concerts.

In 1999 Rilling received the UO’s highest distinction, an honorary doctoral degree – one of only three ever bestowed.

This year 187 Fellows and 29 Foreign Honorary Members are being honored, among them Kofi Annan, Walter Cronkite, four college presidents, three Nobel Prize winners and four Pulitzer Prize winners. Other Foreign Honorary Members previously elected include Niels Bohr; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Jawaharlal Nehru; and Albert Camus.

Eight other UO faculty members have been elected as Fellows of the academy: chemistry professor Peter H. von Hippel (1979); biology professor Franklin W. Stahl (1982); chemistry professor emeritus John A. Schellman (1983); psychology professor Michael I. Posner (1986); physics professor Brian W. Matthews (1989); biology professor Charles B. Kimmel (1995); physics professor Russ Donnelly (2001); and UO President Dave Frohnmayer (2002).

Academy news release and list of fellows