The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) has announced that with effect from October 2019 Charles Dutoit, 80, currently the RPO’s Artistic Director and Principal Conductor, will assume the position of Honorary Conductor for Life. « This will be the first occasion in the RPO’s seventy-year history that the position has been bestowed and it is being given in recognition of Maestro Dutoit’s outstanding contribution to the artistic life of the Orchestra over more than five decades », the press release says.
Charles Dutoit made his debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in November 1966 and was named Artistic Director and Principal Conductor in 2009.