He is one of the individualities with special merits in art, and his naming as a 'Member of the Order of Merit' by Queen Elizabeth the Second of Great Britain, within a ceremony organized in July 2014, stands as evidence for it.

At the moment he is the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, but he began his career in the eighties, when he was at the music rack of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. However, his first contact with music took place long before: he studied the piano and the violin at his birth town College, Liverpool, and he made his debut as a percussionist in the orchestra.

Simon Rattle's first presence at the BBC Proms Festival took place almost four decades ago - on 9^th August, 1976, to be more precise, when he conducted the Sinfonietta in London. 1987 is the year when he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic for the first time and fifteen years after he followed into the footsteps of Claudio Abbado on the board of the institution to the development of which he had contributed ever since it had been founded.

Sir Simon Rattle and the ensemble he conducts, the Orchestra of the Berlin Philharmonic, will perform in the twenty-second edition of the 'George Enescu' International Festival and their concert at the Palace Hall is scheduled on 3^rd September, 2015.

Until then we wish 'Many happy returns of the day!' to the British conductor, because he will be sixty years old on 19^th January. For that reason we are dedicating one Calendar Page to Simon Rattle within the Arpeggio programme, produced by Monica Isăcescu, starting at 10:00.