Sir John Eliot Gardiner has been appointed president of the Bach Archive Foundation in Leipzig and will take up the post on 1 January 2014.
This newly created role, it is hoped, will develop the Archive’s position as a leading international authority on the composer.
English composer Gardiner was offered the role personally by Leipzig’s mayor Burkhard Jung during his attendance at this year’s Bachfest Leipzig. Gardiner is one of the world's foremost Bach interpreters and has recorded many of the composer's works with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists.
Speaking about the new role Gardiner said: 'It is a special honour for me to have been offered the post of president of the Bach Archive, Leipzig by the Mayor of Leipzig. Underlying my work as a conductor and writer is the Bach research done in Leipzig. It will be my privilege to support and encourage this research and to blast a trumpet internationally for the work and achievements of the Bach Archive in Leipzig.'
The Bach Archive is a centre of research and scholarship about the life and work of Johann Sebastian Bach. The institute was established in 1950 on the 200th anniversary of Bach’s death and in 2008 it became part of the University of Leipzig.
Sophie Sinclair