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Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Part of UK in Austria

3rd November 2017 Vienna, Austria

Sir Neville Marriner Memorial Concert, 14 November 2017

One year ago, I attended with my mother a concert in Vienna by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.  It was a sombre occasion.  The concert had been due to be conducted by the founder of the Academy, Sir Neville Marriner, aged 92.  But tragically, the great musician had died in his sleep, two days before.

Neville Marriner was an English violinist and conductor who had a profound connection with Austria, and Vienna.  His obituaries in newspapers from the Guardian (“a life of music-making of the highest quality”) and the Telegraph (“founder and conductor of the world’s most recorded orchestra”) to Die Presse (“erfülltes Musikerleben”) give a hint of his influence.

Thus it was that at the concert last year, on 4 October 2016, the Academy played without a conductor, in honour of Sir Neville.

On 14 November the “Sir Neville Marriner Memorial Concert” will take place at the Konzerthaus in Vienna.  The concert will feature Sir Neville’s son, Andrew Marriner, a distinguished clarinettist; Karl-Heinz Schütz, flute; Maria Prinz, piano; and Robert Nagy, cello.  It will be conducted by Stephen Barlow.

It should be a wonderful concert.

About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.

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