The City of Zurich is awarding the 2013 Art Prize, endowed with 50,000 francs, to conductor Nello Santi. The art patron Henry F. Levy receives the award for general cultural merit, which is endowed with CHF 15,000.
The Italian conductor Nello Santi has close ties to the city of Zurich, where he has lived for decades, and to the Zurich Opera House. His Verdi and Puccini conductors in particular set standards, writes the city in its tribute to the prizewinner.
From 1958 to 1969, Santi was music director of the Zurich Opera House, where he still conducts regularly today. Since Volkmar Andreae (conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra until 1949), there has been no other conductor who has shaped Zurich over such a long period and with such charisma, the city added.
Born in Cologne in 1927, Henry F. Levy has been involved in promoting young artists in Zurich for over thirty years. In London, he became acquainted with organizations that rented out affordable spaces to young artists.
He imported this concept to Zurich: since 1983, the "BINZ39" foundation he set up has provided studios and exhibition spaces in Zurich's industrial buildings.
