In a ceremony at The Juilliard School on April 29, Bowdoin International Music Festival founder Lewis Kaplan will receive the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, awarded by President Horst Kohler and and presented by Consul General Dr. Horst Freitag.

Kaplan, a senior professor of violin and chamber music at Juilliard, is being honored for his commitment to the development of exchange programs between German and U.S. music students.

Kaplan's connection with Germany reaches back more than 50 years since his time as concertmaster and soloist of the U.S. Seventh Army Symphony stationed in Stuttgart, where he performed throughout Germany building bridges between the two countries.

Since then he has performed and given master classes regularly in many of the major music centers in Germany.

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