Award
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize goes to South Korean Unsuk Chin
Unsuk Chin lives in Berlin. photo
© Rui Camilo/EvS/dpa
It is also called the “Nobel Prize of Music”. Every year, outstanding achievements are honored. The award winners include Leonard Bernstein and Anne-Sophie Mutter.
The composer Unsuk Chin from South Korea will receive the International Ernst von Siemens Music Prize this year. Chin got the new one The Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation (EvS) announced in Zug, Switzerland, that music has shown new paths and inspired a wide audience.
The 62-year-old musician, who lives in Berlin, is to receive the prestigious honor worth 250,000 euros on May 18 in Munich. The composition prizes will also be awarded at the celebration. Prize money of 35,000 euros each goes to Bára Gísladóttir from Iceland, the Italian Daniele Ghisi and Yiqing Zhu from China.
The foundation praised Chin’s diversity. Her works were characterized by lucid, dreamlike sounds and humorous lightness. “The result is music that is easy for the audience to access, but at the same time remains complex and challenging.” The South Korean artist sees herself as an international composer who is familiar with both Asian and Western culture.
Studied with György Ligeti
Chin was born in Seoul in 1961. Her composition studies and her further path took her, among others, to György Ligeti in Hamburg and Berlin. According to the EvS, a milestone in her career was her violin concerto from 2001, for which she received the Arnold Schönberg Prize. In 2007, her opera “Alice in Wonderland” premiered at the Munich Opera Festival in Munich, with star conductor Kent Nagano at the podium. Her work also includes works for Korean music. The foundation also referred to a 2009 concert for orchestra and sheng, an instrument similar to the mouth organ.
According to EvS, Chin is the artistic director of the Tongyeong International Festival in South Korea and the Weiwuying International Music Festival in Taiwan. She is currently composer in residence with the Basel Symphony Orchestra. Well-known ensembles such as the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the Berlin Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic also played her works.
The private Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation has been awarding the music prize since 1973. Previous winners included Tabea Zimmermann, Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Mariss Jansons. The foundation also supports contemporary music projects. A total of 3.65 million euros in funding will be awarded this year, according to the statement.