Jan. 29, 2010
H. Charles Grawemeyer was a Louisville entrepreneur and industrialist who instituted annual awards in five fields, to be administered and granted by the University of Louisville: music, education, ideas improving world order, psychology, and religion. Music was the first of the awards to be developed. It was launched in 1984, and the Grawemeyer Award in Music has come to be recognized as the most prestigious composition award in the world. It is also the most lucrative. The amount of the first award, given in 1985, was $150,000, and was raised to $200,000 in 2000. The amount offered for the 2011 award (whose submission deadline has just passed) was decreased to $100,000, no doubt in response to the effect of the world economy on endowments such as Grawemeyer's, but it remains by far the largest composition prize. Lutoslawski 1985
Ligeti 1986
Birtwistle 1987
Ung 1989
Grawemeyer was not a musician, but he was a music lover, and reasoned, "If we did something like this perhaps we could find another Mozart." He worked with the music department at the University of Louisville to develop criteria for judging that would distinguish the award from others, such as the Pulitzer Prize, which were judged by academicians. The group establishing the award studied the procedures for the Nobel Prize, incorporating some of its principles, and came up with a system that involved three tiers of judging, including the faculty of the University of Louisville, an international committee of professional musicians, and a lay committee of knowledgeable music lovers. Pieces by living composers that had been given their premiere in the previous five years were eligible, and the composer had to be nominated by a professional musician or organization.
Tower 1990
Corigliano 1991
Penderecki 1992
Husa 1993
Award recipients have included both composers acknowledged to be among the greatest masters, and composers who are virtually unknown. Particularly in the earlier years, renowned composers like Witold Lutoslawski, György Ligeti, Harrison Birtwistle, John Corigliano, Kryzstof Penderecki, Toru Takemitsu, and John Adams dominated the winners’ list, and more recently Tan Dun, Thomas Adès, Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho, and György Kurtág have been honored. Recent winners tend to include composers respected by their colleagues, but less likely to be familiar to broad audiences, such as Unsuk Chin, George Tsontsakis, Brett Dean, and York Höller.
Takemitsu 1994
Adams 1995
Tcherepnin 1996
Bainbridge 1997
The intent of the Grawemeyer to be an international award has been to some degree a success. While Americans certainly predominate, with seven U.S.-born composers among the 24 winners, 13 nationalities have been represented, including Australia, Cambodia, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Germany, Japan, and South Korea, with multiple honorees from Great Britain, Poland, Hungary, and France. It should be noted, though, that winners from three of the other countries, Karel Husa of Czechoslovakia, Ivan Tcherepnin of France, and Tan Dun of China, established their careers in the U.S., so it can't be denied that the U.S. has been disproportionately represented.
Tan Dun 1998
Adès 2000
Boulez 2001
Kernis 2002
Three women have won the award: Joan Tower of the U.S., Kaija Saariaho of Finland, and Unsuk Chin of South Korea. Of the four Asian-born winners, all of whom, to varying degrees, have adopted or incorporated Western musical vocabularies, three have lived for most of their life in the West: Cambodian Chinary Ung and Korean Unsuk Chin in Germany, and Chinese Tan Dun in the US. Only Toru Takemitsu, born in Japan, developed his career primarily in his home country.
Saariaho 2003
Chin 2004
Tsontakis 2005
Kurtág 2006
In 2004 the Pulitzer Prize in music expanded its reach to include a wider array of music outside the academic tradition, with recent winners including jazz composer Ornette Coleman and post-minimalists David Lang and Steve Reich. Grawemeyer winners have tended to be composers with rigorous training in Western classical and modernist traditions, recognized as acceptable by the academic musical community, and even composers like John Adams and Tan Dun, who are indifferent to the world of academia, are represented by very fine but relatively conventional works. Four of the Grawemeyer winners, John Corigliano, Karel Husa, John Adams, and Aaron Jay Kernis, have also received the Pulitzer Prize.
Currier 2007
Lieberson 2008
Dean 2009
Höller 2010
The Grawemeyer judges have favored works in large traditional forms, particularly concertos. Eleven winning compositions feature single or multiple soloists and orchestra, and seven purely orchestral works have been honored. Other winning compositions include three operas, two pieces of chamber music, and one work for piano. None of the winning compositions have included a significant electronic component, and only Tan Dun's Marco Polo makes substantial use of non-Western instruments.
This listing of the recipients of the Grawemeyer Award allows you to sample the winning compositions.
1985
Witold Lutoslawski Poland, 1913-1994 Symphony No. 3 (1973–1983)
Esa-Pekka Salonen, cond. - Lutoslawski: Symphony No. 3
1986
György Ligeti Hungary 1923- 2006 Études Book 1, for piano (1985)
Fredrik Ullén, piano - Ligeti: Études, Book 1 - Arc-en-ciel
Fredrik Ullén, piano - Ligeti: Études, Book 1 - Automne à Varsovie
1987
Harrison Birtwistle Great Britain b. 1934The Mask of Orpheus, opera (1984)
Various Artists - Birtwistle: The Mask of Orpheus - 3 Shouts of Gratitude: Shout of Victory
Various Artists - Birtwistle: The Mask of Orpheus - 3 Poems of Reminiscences: Poem of Miracles
1988 - No Award
1989
Chinary Ung Cambodia (Germany) b. 1942 Inner Voices, for orchestra (1986)
Dennis Russell Davies, Cond. - Ung: Inner Voices
1990
Joan Tower USA b. 1938Silver Ladders, for orchestra (1986)
Leonard Slatkin, cond. - Tower: Silver Ladders
1991
John Corigliano USA b. 1938 Symphony No. 1 (1991)
Leonard Slatkin, cond. - Corigliano: Symphony No. 1 - Movement 3
Leonard Slatkin, cond. - Corigliano: Symphony No. 1 - Movement 4
1992
Krzysztof Penderecki Poland b. 1933 Symphony 4 ("Adagio") (1989)
Kryzstof Penderecki, cond. - Penderecki: Symphony 4 ("Adagio")
1993 Karel Husa Czechoslovakia (USA) b.1921
Concerto for cello and orchestra (1988)
No recording available
1994
TÅru Takemitsu Japan 1930-1996 Fantasma/Cantos, for clarinet and orchestra (1991)
Sabine Meyer, clarinet - Takemitsu: Fantasma/Cantos
1995
John Adams USA b. 1947 Violin Concerto (1993)
Gidon Kremer, violin - Adams: Violin Concerto - Chaconne
Gidon Kremer, violin - Adams: Violin Concerto - Toccare
1996
Ivan Tcherepnin 1943-1998 France (USA)Double Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra (1995)
No sound sample available
1997
Simon Bainbridge Great Britain b. 1952 Ad Ora Incerta – Four Orchestral Songs from Primo Levi (1994)
No sound sample available
1998
Tan Dun China (USA) b. 1957 Marco Polo, opera (1995)
Tan Dun, cond. - Tan Dun: Book of Timespace - Winter
Tan Dun, cond. - Tan Dun: What a Place That Was
1999 No Award
2000
Thomas Adès Great Britain b. 1971 Asyla, for orchestra, Op. 17 (1997)
Simon Rattle, cond. - Adès: Asyla - II
Simon Rattle, cond. - Adès: Asyla - III Ecstasio
2001
Pierre Boulez France b. 1925 Sur Incises, for 3 pianos, 3 harps, 2 vibes and marimba (1996–1998)
Boulez, cond. - Boulez: Sur Incises - Moment I
Boulez, cond. - Boulez: Sur Incises - Moment II
2002
Aaron Jay Kernis USA b. 1960 Colored Field, cello concerto (1994)
Truls Mørk, cello - Kernis: Colored Field - Pandora Dance
Truls Mørk, cello - Kernis: Colored Field - Hymns and Tablets
2003
Kaija Saariaho Finland b. 1952 L'amour de loin, opera (2000)
Kent Nagano, cond. - Saariaho: L’Amour de loin – Act 2, Tableau 1
Kent Nagano, cond. - Saariaho: L’Amour de loin - Act 5, Tableau 3 - J’avais cru en toi
2004
Unsuk Chin South Korea (Germany) b.1961Violin Concerto (2001)
Viviane Hagner, violin - Chin: Violin Concerto - Movement 2
Viviane Hagner, violin - Chin: Violin Concerto - Movement 4
2005
George Tsontakis USA b.1951 Violin Concerto No. 2 (2003)
Douglas Boyd, violin - Tsontakis: Violin Concerto No. 2 - Surges (among stars)
Douglas Boyd, violin - Tsontakis: Violin Concerto No. 2 - Just Go!
2006
György Kurtág Hungary b. 1926...Concertante..., for violin, viola and orchestra, Op. 42 (2003)
Zoltan Kocsis, cond. - Kurtág: ...Concertante... - Choral (quasi “Trioâ€)
Zoltan Kocsis, cond. - Kurtág: ...Concertante... - Coda
2007
Sebastian Currier USA b.1959 Static, for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano (2003)
Music from Copland House - Currier: Static - ethereal
Music from Copland House - Currier: Static - floating
2008
Peter Lieberson USA b. 1946 Neruda Songs, for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (2005)
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano - Lieberson: Neruda Songs - No estés lejos de mà un solo dÃa (Don't go far off, not even for a day)
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano - Lieberson: Neruda Songs - Amor mÃo, si muero y tú no mueres (My love, if I die and you don't)
2009 Brett Dean Australia b. 1961
The Lost Art of Letter Writing, violin concerto (2006)
No recording available, but you can hear a sample here
2010 York Höller Germany b. 1944
Sphären, for orchestra (2001–2006)
No recording available, but you can hear a sample here
For more information about the Grawemeyer Award, check out the website