Honorary Degree Recipient 1999

Helmuth Rilling was co-founder of the Oregon Bach Festival. The Festival was co-founded in 1970 with Royce Saltzman of the UO Music Faculty. The Oregon Bach Festival is an annual commemoration of the works by Johann Sebastian Bach and it is held every summer in Eugene. In 2001, Rilling won a Grammy award for best choral performance for the Festival’s world premiere recording of Krzysztof Penderecki’s piece, Credo. In 1999, Rilling was presented with an honorary doctorate from UO. Rilling was the first person in university history to have been honored with all three of its highest awards, including the Presidential medal and Distinguished Service Award.