It should have been at the New Year's Concert in 2021, and it should have been at the New Year's Concert the year before. But for two years, the Corona has put an end to the awarding of the Peter Varming Memorial Prize. Therefore, two of the orchestra's most experienced musicians were presented with the awards for 2020 and 2021 on Saturday.
The award is named after the Friends' first chairman and this is the seventh time it has been presented by Anette Faaborg, former rector of the Royal Academy of Music in Esbjerg and widow of Peter Varming.
The award for 2020 went to 1st solo cellist Henrik Dam Thomsen, who received these words from Anette Faaborg:
- He has combined his position as principal cellist in the orchestra with an extremely versatile work as a chamber musician and soloist. He has recorded several CDs and performed at numerous concerts and festivals throughout Europe, the USA and Asia, and has also performed as an improvisation musician with a large number of Danish and international jazz stars.
The second - 2021 award recipient - was the orchestra's bass clarinetist since 1997, Søren Elbo.
- The bass clarinet is an instrument that plays a large and soloistic role in Shostakovich's symphonies, for example. He fulfils that role to everyone's admiration. In addition to his orchestral work, he has played clarinet in various chamber ensembles, such as the Radio Symphony Orchestra's Wind Quintet and the Diamond Ensemble. For many years he has been a member of the orchestra's own board and finally - and not least - he is a highly valued teacher at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, said Anette Faaborg after the break in Saturday's repeat of the Thursday concert, before Fabio Luisi conducted the orchestra in Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony.
The award comes with a cheque for 25,000, donated by the Beckett Foundation. According to the charter, it is given to ”a musician who has made a special contribution to the development of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra to its current high international level.”
- 2015: Ulla Miilmann, flute
- 2016: Claus Myrup, viola
- 2017: Gert Sørensen, percussion
- 2018: Christina Åstrand, violin, and Johannes Søe Hansen, concertmaster violin
- 2019: Lasse Mauritzen, horn