James Holmes Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Awardee

Awarded 2018

British conductor James Holmes (1948- ) received the Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award from KWF president Kim H. Kowalke on 14 April 2018 during the awards ceremony at the finals of the Lotte Lenya Competition in recognition of his career-spanning dedication to the music of Weill. In announcing the Award, Foundation Board Chair Theodore S. Chapin noted that “Jim has conducted more wide-ranging repertory by Kurt Weill around the world than any conductor previously, even Weill’s own maestro of choice, Maurice Abravanel.” In accepting the award, Holmes acknowledged Weill as “the man whose work embodies everything that is great about music in the theater: his range, his style, and above all his humanity.” Holmes has conducted exemplary productions of the majority of Weill’s stage works, as well as performances of excerpts in the BBC film “Kurt Weill in America” featuring Judy Kaye, and all-star concert revues in Dessau, London, and New York. He has adjudicated the Lenya Competition seven times.