The 99-year-old Swedish conductor has been awarded the 2026 Praemium Imperiale, joining a distinguished list of music laureates including Leonard Bernstein, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim and Martha Argerich.
Herbert Blomstedt has been named the 2026 laureate of the Praemium Imperiale for Music, one of the world’s most prestigious international arts awards.
The Japan Art Association announced the recipients of the 37th Praemium Imperiale on 8 September. Alongside Blomstedt, this year’s laureates are Jenny Holzer for Painting, Andy Goldsworthy for Sculpture, Daniel Libeskind for Architecture and Cate Blanchett for Theatre/Film.
Each laureate receives 15 million yen and a medal, which will be presented by Prince Hitachi, honorary patron of the Japan Art Association, at a ceremony in Tokyo on 28 October.
Established in 1989, the Praemium Imperiale honours outstanding achievement in five artistic fields and has developed a particularly distinguished list of recipients in music. Previous laureates include Leonard Bernstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Martha Argerich, Zubin Mehta and Anne-Sophie Mutter.
The award comes at a particularly significant moment in Blomstedt’s extraordinary career. The Swedish conductor turned 99 in July and remains, officially at least, an active conductor, although a series of health problems and cancellations in recent months has raised uncertainty over when he might return to the podium.
Blomstedt’s most recent appearance came with the San Francisco Symphony in May. He subsequently withdrew from concerts with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and was unable to travel to Bamberg for a special concert marking his 99th birthday. In August, the Leipzig Gewandhaus announced that he would also be unable, for health reasons, to conduct three performances of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony scheduled for 17, 18 and 20 September.
No retirement has been announced. Indeed, Blomstedt still has future engagements on the calendar: the Gewandhaus plans further concerts with him in April 2027 as part of celebrations surrounding his 100th birthday.
Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1927 to Swedish parents, Blomstedt has enjoyed a conducting career spanning more than seven decades. He served as chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden from 1975 to 1985, music director of the San Francisco Symphony from 1985 to 1995 and Gewandhauskapellmeister in Leipzig from 1998 to 2005, and has maintained exceptionally close relationships with many of the world’s leading orchestras.
The Praemium Imperiale therefore arrives not simply as another distinction in a long list of honours, but as recognition of one of the most remarkable conducting careers of the modern era — at a moment when Blomstedt’s future appearances on the podium remain uncertain.
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