Lifetime achievement award presented at music festival

Polish composer Krzysztof Pendereck receives the music festival's Lifetime Achievement Award from the festival director, Yesim Gurer. The 41st Istanbul Music Festival continued June 18 with the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award. At a ceremony held at the Hagia Irene Museum, famous Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, who is known for his sensitiveness to social matters, received the award from the Istanbul Music Festival director, Yesim Gurer. Also, the Munich Chamber Orchestra performed a concert at the ceremony. Every year through the Lifetime Achievement Awards, the Istanbul Music Festival shows its gratitude and respect to masters who have contributed greatly to the development of classical music. Penderecki is considered as one of today's greatest composers with a unique style that blends contemporary sounds and traditional forms. He composed several of his works in remembrance of catastrophes in the 20th century. "Threnody for 52 string instruments," composed in 1960, is dedicated to the victims of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and the piano concerto "Resurrection" was composed as a reaction to the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. At the award ceremony, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, made its festival debut under the baton of its artistic director, Alexander Liebreich, with a program centering upon "Time and Transformation." The concert featured one of the iconic virtuosos of the new generation, Khatia Buniatishvili.