Benjamin Britten, London Records 1968 publicity photo for Wikipedia

The Ernst von Siemens Music Prize (short: Siemens Music Prize, german: link=no, Ernst von Siemens Musikpreis) is an annual music prize given by the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste (Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts) on behalf of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung (Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation), established in 1972. The foundation was established by Ernst von Siemens (1903–1990) and promotes contemporary music. The prize honors a composer, performer, or musicologist who has made a distinguished contribution to the world of music. In addition to the main prize, other prizes are also given. The total prize money given is currently 3.5 million

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s, with the winner of the main prize receiving €250,000. The prize is sometimes known as "the Nobel Prize of music". Smaller awards are called "Förderpreis" (encouragement award). "Komponisten-Förderpreise" ("Composers' Prizes") are given to young composers for one of their works. "Förderprojekte" ("Grant-in-Aid Projects") support music festivals, concerts, musical institutions, and young musicians.

Main prize winners

Winners of the main prize were: *1974 –

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

*1975 – Olivier Messiaen *1976 – Mstislav Rostropovich *1977 –

Herbert von Karajan Herbert von Karajan (; born Heribert Ritter von Karajan; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, wit ...

*1978 –

Rudolf Serkin Rudolf Serkin (28 March 1903 – 8 May 1991) was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century. Early life, childhood debut, and education Serkin was born in ...

*1979 – Pierre Boulez *1980 –

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, ...

*1981 –

Elliott Carter Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra- ...

*1982 –

Gidon Kremer Gidon Kremer ( lv, Gidons Krēmers; born 27 February 1947) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica. Life and career Gidon Kremer was born in Riga. His father was Jewish and had survived the Holo ...

*1983 –

Witold Lutosławski Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szyman ...

*1984 –

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to t ...

*1985 –

Andrés Segovia Andrés Segovia Torres, 1st Marquis of Salobreña (21 February 1893 – 2 June 1987) was a Spanish virtuoso classical guitarist. Many professional classical guitarists were students of Segovia or their students. Segovia's contribution to the m ...

*1986 –

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...

*1987 – Leonard Bernstein *1988 – Peter Schreier *1989 –

Luciano Berio Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled '' Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...

*1990 –

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...

*1991 – Heinz Holliger *1992 – H. C. Robbins Landon *1993 –

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...

*1994 –

Claudio Abbado Claudio Abbado (; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony ...

*1995 – Sir

Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include '' T ...

*1996 – Maurizio Pollini *1997 –

Helmut Lachenmann Helmut Friedrich Lachenmann (born 27 November 1935) is a German composer of contemporary classical music. His work has been associated with "instrumental musique concrète". Life and works Lachenmann was born in Stuttgart and after the end of ...

*1998 –

György Kurtág György Kurtág (; born 19 February 1926) is a Hungarian classical composer and pianist. He was an academic teacher of piano at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from 1967, later also of chamber music, and taught until 1993. Biography Györ ...

*1999 – Arditti Quartet *2000 –

Mauricio Kagel Mauricio Raúl Kagel (; 24 December 1931 – 18 September 2008) was an Argentine-German composer. Biography Kagel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family that had fled from Russia in the 1920s . He studied music, his ...

*2001 – Reinhold Brinkmann *2002 – Nikolaus Harnoncourt *2003 –

Wolfgang Rihm Wolfgang Rihm (born 13 March 1952) is a German composer and academic teacher. He is musical director of the Institute of New Music and Media at the University of Music Karlsruhe and has been composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Sa ...

*2004 –

Alfred Brendel Alfred Brendel KBE (born 5 January 1931) is an Austrian classical pianist, poet, author, composer, and lecturer who is known particularly for his performances of Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg, and Beethoven.Stephen Plaistow"Brendel, Alfred" ' ...

*2005 – Henri Dutilleux *2006 – Daniel Barenboim *2007 – Brian Ferneyhough *2008 – Anne-Sophie Mutter *2009 – Klaus Huber *2010 –

Michael Gielen Michael Andreas Gielen (20 July 19278 March 2019) was an Austrian conductor and composer known for promoting contemporary music in opera and concert. Principally active in Europe, his performances are characterized by precision and vivacity, aid ...

*2011 – Aribert Reimann *2012 –

Friedrich Cerha Friedrich Cerha (born 17 February 1926) is an Austrian composer, conductor and music educator. Education and Career Cerha was born in Vienna, Austria, and educated at the Viennese Music Academy (violin with Váša Příhoda, composition with ...

*2013 –

Mariss Jansons Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons (14 January 1943 – 1 December 2019) was a Latvian conductor best known for his interpretations of Mahler, Strauss and Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich. During his lifetime he w ...

*2014 – Peter Gülke *2015 –

Christoph Eschenbach Christoph Eschenbach (; born 20 February 1940) is a German pianist and conductor. Early life Eschenbach was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland). His parents were Margarethe (née Jaross) and Heribert Ringmann. He was orphaned durin ...

*2016 – Per Nørgård *2017 – Pierre-Laurent Aimard *2018 –

Beat Furrer Beat Furrer (born 6 December 1954) is a Swiss-born Austrian composer and conductor. He has served as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz since 1991. He was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 201 ...

*2019 –

Rebecca Saunders Rebecca Saunders (born 19 December 1967) is a London-born composer who lives and works freelance in Berlin. In a 2017 ''Classic Voice'' poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000, Saunders' compositions received the third highest total ...

*2020 –

Tabea Zimmermann Tabea Zimmermann (born 8 October 1966) is a German violist. Born in Lahr, she began learning to play the viola at the age of three, and commenced piano studies at age five. At the age of 13, she studied viola with Ulrich Koch at the Conservat ...

*2021 –

Georges Aperghis Georges Aperghis ( el, Γιώργος Απέργης; born 23 December 1945) is a Greek composer working primarily in the field of experimental music theater but has also composed a large amount of non- programmatic chamber music. He lives in Fr ...

*2022 – Olga Neuwirth

Composers' Prize winners

Winners of the Composers' Prize (''Förderpreis'') were: * 1990 – Michael Jarrell and

George Lopez George Edward Lopez (born April 23, 1961) is an American comedian and actor. He is known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American culture. Lopez has rece ...

* 1991 –

Herbert Willi Herbert Willi (born ) is an Austrian composer of classical music, whose orchestral works, concertos and chamber music have been performed internationally and also recorded. Willi composed an opera, ''Schlafes Bruder'', for the Opernhaus Zürich. ...

* 1992 –

and Benedict Mason * 1993 – Sylvia Fomina and Param Vir * 1994 –

Hans-Jürgen von Bose Hans-Jürgen von Bose (born 24 December 1953 in Munich) is a German composer. Life After an unsettled adolescence, Bose entered the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt in 1969, where he received instruction in piano and music theory. Upon graduati ...

, Marc-André Dalbavie and

Luca Francesconi Luca Francesconi (born 17 March 1956) is an Italian composer. He studied at the Milan Conservatory, then with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luciano Berio. Early years Luca Francesconi was born in Milan. His father was a painter who edited ''Il ...

* 1995 – Gerd Kühr and Philippe Hurel * 1996 – Volker Nickel and

* 1997 –

Moritz Eggert Moritz Eggert (born 25 November 1965 in Heidelberg) is a German composer and pianist. Life Moritz Eggert began his studies in piano and composition in 1975 at Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium in Frankfurt (with Wolfgang Wagenhaeuser and Claus Kü ...

and Mauricio Sotelo * 1998 – Antoine Bonnet and Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf * 1999 –

Thomas Adès Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès (born 1 March 1971) is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: '' The Tempest'' (2004), '' ...

and Olga Neuwirth * 2000 –

Hanspeter Kyburz Hanspeter Kyburz (born 8 July 1960) is a contemporary Swiss composer of classical music, known for applying electronic music techniques to his productions. Career Kyburz was born in Lagos, Nigeria to Swiss parents. In 1980, he began studying m ...

, Augusta Read Thomas and

Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini (born 1971) is a Swiss composer whose operas have been performed at leading European opera houses. Career Born in Basel, he studied there German studies and Italian studies. He changed to studying composition with Rud ...

* 2001 – Isabel Mundry, André Werner and José María Sánchez-Verdú * 2002 – Mark Andre, Jan Müller-Wieland and Charlotte Seither * 2003 – Chaya Czernowin, Christian Jost and

Jörg Widmann Jörg Widmann (born 19 June 1973) is a German composer, conductor and clarinetist. In 2018, Widmann was the third most performed contemporary composer in the world. Formerly a clarinet and composition professor at the University of Music Freibu ...

* 2004 – Fabien Lévy,

Johannes Maria Staud Johannes Maria Staud (born 17 August 1974) is an Austrian composer. Biography Staud was born in Innsbruck and studied with, among others, Brian Ferneyhough and Michael Jarrell (at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna). In 1999/ ...

and Enno Poppe * 2005 – Sebastian Claren, Philipp Maintz and Michel van der Aa * 2006 – Jens Joneleit, Alexander Muno and Athanasia Tzanou * 2007 – Vykintas Baltakas and Markus Hechtle * 2008 – Dieter Ammann,

Márton Illés Márton Illés (born 12 December 1975 in Budapest), is a Hungarian composer and pianist. Illés received musical training in piano, composition and percussion in Győr from 1981 to 1994. In 1993 he spent one academical term at the conservatory of ...

and Wolfram Schurig * 2009 – Francesco Filidei, Miroslav Srnka and Lin Yang * 2010 – Pierluigi Billone, Arnulf Herrmann, Oliver Schneller * 2011 – Steven Daverson, Hèctor Parra, Hans Thomalla * 2012 – Luke Bedford,

Zeynep Gedizlioğlu Zeynep Gedizlioğlu (born 4 December 1977) is a Turkish composer who won the Ernst von Siemens Young Composer of the Year Award in 2012. Biography Zeynep Gedizlioğlu was born 4 December 1977 in İzmir and grew up in Istanbul. She has spent most ...

, Ulrich Alexander Kreppein * 2013 –

David Philip Hefti David Philip Hefti (born 1975) is a Swiss composer and conductor. Career Born in St. Gallen, Hefti studied composition, conducting, clarinet and chamber music with Wolfgang Rihm, Cristóbal Halffter, Wolfgang Meyer, Rudolf Kelterborn and Elmar ...

Samy Moussa Samy Moussa (born June 1, 1984) is a Canadian conductor and composer of classical music, living in Berlin. His works have been performed internationally. Early life and education Moussa was born and grew up in Montreal. He completed his undergradu ...

, Marko Nikodijevic * 2014 – Simone Movio, Brigitta Muntendorf, Luis Codera Puzo * 2015 – Birke J. Bertelsmeier, Mark Barden, Christian Mason * 2016 – Milica Djordjevic, David Hudry, Gordon Kampe * 2017 – ,

Simon Steen-Andersen Simon Steen-Andersen (born 1976) is a Denmark, Danish composer, performer, director and media artist. Biography He studied composition with Karl Aage Rasmussen, Mathias Spahlinger, Gabriel Valverde, and Bent Sørensen (composer), Bent Sørensen ...

, Lisa Streich * 2018 – , Timothy McCormack, Oriol Saladrigues * 2019 – Annesley Black,

Ann Cleare Ann Cleare (born 1983 in County Offaly) is an Irish composer. She is Assistant Professor at Trinity College Dublin. In 2019 she won the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize, sharing it with Annesley Black and Mithatcan Öcal. Educati ...

, Mithatcan Öcal * 2020 –

Catherine Lamb Catherine Lamb (born 1982 in Olympia, Washington) is an American composer and violist, and a winner of the 2020 Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize. Biography Lamb describes her music as exploring "the interaction of tone, summations of shapes and ...

, Francesca Verunelli, Samir Amarouch * 2021 – , Mirela Ivičević,

Yair Klartag Yair may refer to: *A spelling variant of the Jewish name Jair or Ya'ir *Yair (name), list of people with the name Yair *Yair, Scottish Borders Yair, also known as The Yair, is an estate in the Scottish Borders. It stands by the River Tweed in ...

* 2022 – Benjamin Attahir, Naomi Pinnock and Mikel Urquiza

References

External links

* {{Authority control German music awards Classical music awards Awards established in 1972