Most of the Länder have their own orders of merit. There are up to three ranks (member, officer, commander). The Cities of Bremen and Hamburg do not have an order, and by old tradition its citizens will refuse any decoration in form of an order.
The Bundesverdienstkreuz has eight classes, in ascending order:
The President of the Federal Republic holds the "Sonderstufe des Großkreuzes" ex officio. It is awarded to him in a ceremony by the President of the Bundestag. The Chancellor, the President of the Bundesrat and the President of the Bundesverfassungsgericht attend this ceremony. Other than the President of the Federal Republic, only a foreign head of state can receive the highest class award. People can also receive the Großkreuze in a special rare design. Only two people have had this award, Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl.
Except for the lowest class, the badge is the same for all classes. However, the badge and ribbon for women is a little smaller. The badge is a golden Maltese Cross enamelled in red. It has a central disc with a black eagle. The star is golden. It has straight rays and its size and points vary according to class. The badge is on top of it. The ribbon is red with gold-black-gold stripes.
Austin Lightning
The Austin Lightning is an amateur soccer team in Austin, Texas. It is in the Mid South division of the South Conference of the Premier Development League of the United Soccer Leagues.
The club was founded in 2003, when it was moved from Lafayette, Louisiana. The team finished last in the division in the 2007 season, due in part to scheduling difficulties caused by record amounts of rain in Austin, which cause fields to be closed on match days. The Austin Lightning are coached by Jaime Mimbela. Their colors are red and white.
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the main orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is one of the best orchestras in Britain.
The orchestra started in 1930. Sir Adrian Boult was the main conductor until 1950, when Sir Malcolm Sargent took over until 1957. Since then there have been several conductors. Now the orchestra is conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek.
As well as these principal conductors there have been others, including the famous Arturo Toscanini, who made a series of recordings with the orchestra in the Queen's Hall from 1937 to 1939.
The BBC often ask composers of today to write music for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Composers whose new works they have performed include Sally Beamish, Harrison Birtwistle Elliott Carter, James MacMillan, John Tavener and Mark-Anthony Turnage.
The orchestra plays a big part in the BBC Proms, the season of concerts played every summer at the Royal Albert Hall. It plays on both the first and last nights of the prom season. It also plays several concerts in the Barbican during the year. They often make recordings in the BBC studios. They can often be seen on BBC Television. Sometimes they go on tour to other countries. They also play concerts for young people as part of an education programme.
There are other professional BBC orchestras and groups: the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the BBC Big Band and the BBC Singers. There are also two amateur choruses: the BBC Symphony Chorus and the BBC National Chorus of Wales.
Jiří Bělohlávek
Jiří Bělohlávek (24 February 1946 – 31 May 2017) was a Czech conductor. He was the principal (main) conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. His name "Bělohlávek" means "Whitehead". It is pronounced "Bye-lo-hla-vek". He was born in Prague.
Bělohlávek studied conducting with Sergiu Celibidache. He went to the Prague Conservatory and Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He won the 1970 Czech National Conducting Competition and soon became famous in his country and abroad.
Bělohlávek was chief conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra from 1977-1989. He became principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990 for a short time. Then he founded the Prague Philharmonia "(Pražskou komorní filharmonii)" in 1994, They gave concerts all over the world together and made many recordings. He is still their conductor laureate (honorary conductor).
From 1995-2000, Bělohlávek was principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In 2006 he became their principal conductor. He conducted them at the Proms that year. In 2007 he conducted at the Last Night of the Proms.
Bělohlávek also conducts in the United States. He first conducted at the Metropolitan Opera (Met) in December 2004, conducting Leoš Janáček's "Káťa Kabanová" with Karita Mattila in the title role. He returned to the Met in January and February of 2007 for the same composer's "Jenůfa", once again with Mattila, and with Anja Silja as the Kostelnička. Other guest conducting appearances in the US have been with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Bělohlávek died on 31 May 2017 in Prague from cancer at the age of 71.
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini (25 March 1867 – 16 January 1957) was an Italian conductor. Most musicians think he was the greatest conductor of his time. His fame was legendary: he was probably the first conductor to become a world superstar. He had an incredibly good memory and could remember every single note of the large number of works he conducted. He had a photographic memory so that he could remember what the pages looked like. Sometimes he found little mistakes in the scores which no one else had ever noticed. He had a very keen sense of hearing and knew exactly what each instrument was doing. He also had a fiery temperament and there are movies of him shouting angrily at his orchestra in rehearsals. In the early days of gramophone recordings he made some of the first recordings of famous orchestral works.
Toscanini was born in Parma in Italy. He won a scholarship to the local music conservatory, where he learned to play the cello. He joined the orchestra of an opera company and he toured South America with them in 1886. While performing Verdi’s opera "Aida" in Rio de Janeiro the audience did not like the conductor and they booed him so that he had to leave the stage. No one knew what to do at first, but then they persuaded Toscanini, who was only 19 years old, to put down his cello and conduct the orchestra. He did this brilliantly from memory (without looking at the music) and that night he became famous.
When he got back to Italy Toscanini returned to his chair in the cello section, and took part as cellist in the first performance of Verdi's "Otello" (La Scala, 1887). Verdi was there and was very impressed when Toscanini asked him about a mistake he noticed in the score.
Soon the young musician's reputation as a brilliant conductor of opera grew. He conducted the first performances of Puccini's "La Bohème" and Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci". In 1896 he conducted his first symphonic concert (works by Schubert, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner), in Turin. By 1898 he was conductor at La Scala, Milan and he stayed there until 1908, but returned during the 1920s. He took the Scala Orchestra to the United States on a concert tour in 1920-21; it was during that tour that Toscanini made his first recordings (for the Victor Talking Machine Company).
Toscanini started conducting outside Europe: at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City (1908–1915) as well as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (1926–1936). He toured Europe with the New York Philharmonic in 1930 and always had great success. Toscanini was the first non-German conductor to conduct at Bayreuth (1930–1931). In the 1930s he conducted at the Salzburg Festival (1934–1937) and the first concert in 1936 of the newly formed Palestine Symphony Orchestra (now the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra) in Tel Aviv, and later performed with them in Jerusalem, Haifa, Cairo and Alexandria.