Contact:	Kim Brockway					For immediate release
		(212) 854-2419
		kkb18@columbia.edu


Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Conductor Zinman 
Receives Columbia's Ditson Award


	David Zinman, music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, has 
been named the winner of the 1997 Ditson Conductor's Award for the 
advancement of American music, presented annually by Columbia University.
	The award, which is the oldest award honoring conductors for their 
support of American music, was presented November 8 at a Baltimore Symphony 
Orchestra (BSO) concert at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore.  
The evening's program, which will also be performed during the BSO's upcoming 
1997 Japan Tour, featured Bright Blue Music  by American composer Michael 
Torke, Debussy's inspiring La Mer, and Berlioz's dark and dramatic Symphonie fantastique.
	The Ditson Conductor's Award was established in 1945 by the Alice M. 
Ditson Fund at Columbia.  Past recipients include Leonard Bernstein, Eugene 
Ormandy and Leopold Stowkowski.
	Columbia Professor of Music George Edwards, the Secretary of the Ditson 
Fund Advisory Committee, presented the 53rd annual award and the $1,000 prize 
to Zinman.  He read a citation from Columbia University President George Rupp 
that praises Zinman for his "extraordinarily broad repertoire, elegant and 
masterful performances and recordings, and innovative concert formats"  and for 
creating "new standards in performances of well-known compositions by Ives, 
Copland and Barber." In addition, Zinman was cited for having played "a crucial 
role in bringing many of America's finest younger composers into national and 
international prominence."
	Zinman is one of America's most admired conductors, both for his success
in building the artistic level and national reputation of the Baltimore Symphony 
Orchestra and for his highly-praised guest performances with orchestras in 
Europe and North America.  He has conducted more than 200 American works 
with the BSO, including more than 20 premieres, and has recorded more than 60 
American works on major record labels.
	Zinman has won five Grammy Awards since 1990: two for his recordings of 
the music of Stephen Albert, Bart÷k and Bloch, and another for his disc of Barber 
and Britten cello concertos, both recorded with the Baltimore Symphony and Yo-
Yo Ma; for a recording of 20th-century vocal/orchestral music with soprano Dawn 
Upshaw and the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and for a "P.D.Q. Bach" disc (recorded 
under the pseudonym "Walter Bruno").   His recordings have topped the classical 
music charts in England and the United States.
	Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Zinman graduated from Oberlin Conservatory and 
pursued advanced work in composition at the University of Minnesota.  
Conducting studies at the Boston Symphony's Tanglewood Music Center brought 
him to the attention of the great Pierre Monteux, who guided his musical 
development and gave him his first important conducting opportunities with the 
London Symphony Orchestra and at the 1963 Holland Festival, where he was 
hailed by the critics as a major conducting discovery. 
	Zinman's twelve years as music director of the Baltimore Symphony have 
been distinguished by his programming of an exceptionally broad repertoire, his
 strong commitment to the performance of contemporary American music, and 
his introduction of historically-informed performance practice for music of the 
18th and early 19th centuries. He has led the BSO on successful tours in both the 
United States and abroad, and has served as music director of the Rochester 
Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Netherlands Chamber 
Orchestra.  Zinman is currently music director and chief conductor of the Zurich 
Tonhalle Orchestra, and in the summer of 1997, he assumed the position of music 
director of the Aspen Music Festival and School.  Throughout his 35 years as a 
conductor, Zinman has performed with many of the world's leading orchestras, 
including the London Symphony and the Berlin Philharmonic.

11.10.97											19,210