BERLIN (CelebrityAccess) – Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has gifted Simon Rattle with the country’s highest honor, The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Rattle, the former head of the Berlin Philharmonic is set to take a new job in Munich next year.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that the 67-year old Rattle had become “our Simon” during his 16-years at the helm of the Berlin Philharmonic. The Washington Post reports that Rattle, who lives in Berlin and now has German Citizenship (He was born in Britain), said he was “deeply grateful for this honor.”
During the ceremony, Rattle said that one of the new advantages of the COVID-19 pandemic is that Brexit is no longer sitting at the forefront of every news article. “Whatever the situation in my native country may be at the moment, most musicians there feel deeply European,” said Rattle, who has been a critic of post-Brexit restrictions on musicians touring within the European Union.
Rattle will be taking over the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra next year in Munich and is currently the music director of the London Symphony Orchestra.
