Major award for Philippe Jordan
© Andrea Humer
During the concert in the Great Hall of the Vienna Konzerthaus on January 8, 2026, Philippe Jordan was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class .
The award for outstanding services to science and art was presented by Christian Kircher, Managing Director of the Federal Theatres Holding, representing Minister of Culture and Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler.
The award ceremony took place after the concert and a profound interpretation of Anton Bruckner's 4th Symphony, the Romantic.
In his laudatory speech, Matthias Naske, director of the Vienna Konzerthaus , emphasized Philippe Jordan's outstanding contributions to music:
“It is a great pleasure and honor for me to congratulate Philippe Jordan on the award of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class. With this distinction, the Republic honors a conductor whose artistic integrity, intellectual depth, and human greatness have shaped, and will continue to shape, musical life far beyond Austria's borders. In his work with soloists, ensembles, and orchestras, Philippe Jordan combines precision with profound musical feeling, human greatness with artistic passion. In his work at the Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opera, and on the world's great stages, he embodies a rare balance of analytical clarity and deeply felt, organic music-making.”
For more than two decades, Philippe Jordan has been a highly esteemed and significant artistic partner in Vienna's musical life, and for the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in particular. He shapes sound with gestures of clarity and depth. His musical interpretation opens spaces where work and audience, history and present, mind and emotion converge. In doing so, he embodies an ideal of particular importance to Vienna and its musical life: the union of artistic profundity and human compassion.
Dear Philippe, this award is an expression of gratitude and recognition for what you have given to music, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Konzerthaus and its audience, and this country. On behalf of the Vienna Konzerthaus Society, I congratulate you most sincerely – and thank you for the inspiring continuity of a musical friendship that enriches Vienna and radiates far beyond the city and the country.
