The is an international music competition for young composers of contemporary classical music organized in Tokyo, Japan. The award was founded by composer Toru Takemitsu, its namesake.
History The Toru Takemitsu Composition Award was established in 1997.
Each year, only one judge picks the winner of the award. For the first 3-year cycle, Takemitsu himself chose the judges: Henri Dutilleux (1997), György Ligeti (1998), and Luciano Berio (1999). Then, after Takemitsu's death, the three successors, Louis Andriessen (2000 recommended by Berio), Oliver Knussen (2001 recommended by Dutilleux) and Joji Yuasa (2002 recommended by Ligeti) were nominated by the initial judges.
For the third 3-year cycle (2003–2005), George Benjamin (2003), Magnus Lindberg (2004) and John Adams (2005 • cancelled) were nominated on the recommendation of the competition's advisors (Hiroyuki Iwaki, Oliver Knussen, Kent Nagano, Kazushi Ohno, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Hiroshi Wakasugi) and preceding judges.
For the fourth 3-year cycle (2007–2009), the advisors and previous judges selected Akira Nishimura (2007), Steve Reich (2008) and Helmut Lachenmann (2009).
Tristan Murail (2010), Salvatore Sciarrino (2011) and Toshio Hosokawa (2012) were appointed as judges for the new 2010–2012 cycle.
The nominated pieces are performed at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.
As of 2011, fifty different composers had been nominated for this prize since its inception in 1997.
The total sum of the cash award is 3,000,000 Yen each year.
In 2026, the cash awards were: 1st Prize: 1,000,000 yen 2nd Prize: 800,000 yen 3rd Prize: 700,000 yen 4th Prize: 500,000 yen
Results The winners are: YearJudge1st prize2nd prize3rd prize4th prizeNotes 1997 not awarded "ZÉULA" by Massimo Botter "Mabuni-no-Oka" by Hideki Kozakura PAGAN II by Marc Kenneth Yeats 1998 not awarded not awarded not awarded 1999 "Uninterrupted Song" by Katsuji Maeda "DINAMORPHIA" by Ken Itō "Polychrome" by Toshiya Watanabe 2000 "L'été – L'oubli rouge" by Jun Nagao "AWAKENINGS" by Joe Cutler "Pulsating" by Sho Ueda 2001 "AQUILO" by Arlene Elizabeth Sierra "Gebilde-Gegenbild" by René Mense "5 pieces for orchestra" by Luke Bedford "Stein/Stern" by Ryuji Kubota 2002 "Canticum Tremulum" by Royuki Yamamoto "Tenunan II" by Tazul Tajuddin "FEEDBACK" by Panayiotis Kokoras "Scene for Orchestra" by Theodor Pauss "Tzolkin" by Michael John Wiley 2003 "Allégories" by Joël Mérah "Calling Timbuktu" by Dai Fujikura "Nights Bright Days" by Phillip Neil Martin "Da/Fort" by Vittorio Zago 2004 "Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams" by Paul Stanhope "Phenomenon" by Narong Prangcharoen "Focal Distance II" by Sho Ueda "YU-HYUN" by Soonjung Suh "TALKING" by Marius Baranauskas 2005 The competition was cancelled 2006 There was no competition 2007 "Never Stand Behind Me" by Sho Ueda "CUBE" by Andrea Portera "AQUA" by Man Fang "Reminiscence of a dream" by YiMing Wu "In Killing Fields Sweet Butterfly Ascend" by Jonas Valfridsson 2008 "What dou you think about the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?" by Yuichi Matsumoto "La Noche de Takemitsu" by Tomás Barreiro "God in the Machine" by Damian Barbeler "16_1/32_1" by Toru Nakatani 2009 "Hexagonal Pulsar" by Kenji Sakai "Creatura Temporale" by Raffaele Grimaldi "ZAI" by Kazutomo Yamamoto "Cronica Fisiologica Universal" by Lucas Fagin "A Whirl of Endless Repetition – To the Chaotic Ocean" by Masato Kimura 2010 "...Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion" by Roberto Toscano (Brazil) "Aquarius" by Andrej Slezak (Slovakia/Hungary) "Infinito Nero e Lontano la Luce" by Ken Namba (Japan) "Deux Presages" by Chikako Yamanaka (Japan) 2011 "Flux et reflux" by Florent Motsch-Etienne (France) "Subliminal" by Bernd Richard Deutsch (Austria) "Parts II" by Jan Erik Mikalsen (Norway) "NAMOK" by Heera Kim (Korea) 2012 "Mano d'erba, per orchestra" by Federico Gardella (Italy) "Une Œuvre pour l'Echo des Rêves (II), pour orchestra" by Ioannis Angelakis (Greece) "I Do Hope to Sleep in the Silent Universe" by Masato Kimura (Japan) "WARAI" by Shiori Usui (Japan) 2013 "SIGHS – hommage à Fryderyk Chopin" by Marcin Stańczyk (Poland) "The Lark in the Snow" by Sumio Kobayashi (Japan) "Zwei Landschaftsbilder" by Huan Liu (China) "'CLOSE' to You to 'OPEN'" by Nana Kamiyama (Japan) 2014 "THE NORTHERN CAMELLIA – GRADATION OF SOUNDING AMITY No. 2" by Kei Daigo (Japan) "Until the Sea Above Us Is Closed Again" Giovanni Dario Manzini (Italy) "BLACK BOXES für drei Orchestergruppen" by Timo Ruttkamp (Germany) "AWAKENING / SERENITY" by Siraseth Pantura-umporn (Thailand) 2015 "Reachings for orchestra" by Sebastian Hilli (Finland) "[difeʁãs] for orchestra" by Yiğit Kolat (Turkey/US) "cuadro de presencia for orchestra" by Fabià Santcovsky (Spain) "loop-fantasy for orchestra" by Thomas Wally (Austria) not awarded 2016 "ARCHETYPE" by Michael Seltenreich (Israel) "Let's speak in Wondrous Words! for orchestra" by Hirofumi Mogi (Japan) "triple sensibilities for orchestra" by Myunghoon Park (Korea) "Nacres for Orchestra" by Alice Nakamura (Japan) not awarded 2017 "Paysages entrelacés pour orchestre" by Naoki Sakata (Japan) "at the still point for orchestra" by Zihua Tan (Malaysia) "NOWHERE for orchestra" by Annachiara Gedda (Italy) "Ich habe nie Menschenfleisch gegessen for orchestra" by Stefan Beyer (Germany) not awarded 2018 "Quanta" by Barnaby Martin (UK) "STARING WEI JIE TO DEATH" by Paulo Brito (Brazil/US) "Quantum Vacuum" by Lukas Hövelmann-Köper (Germany) "SLEEPING IN THE WIND" by Bo Li (China) not awarded 2019 "Resonanz vom Horizont" by Shiqi Geng (China) "Entelequias" by Pablo Rubino Lindner (Argentina)"Im Bauch des Fisches drei Tage und drei Nächte " by Siqi Liu (China)"At The End Of Snow Line" by Zhuosheng Jin (China) 2020 "BORÉAS" by Xinyang Wang (China)"SIX PRAYERS" by David Roche (UK)"POÈMES DE MIDI" by Francisco Domínguez (Spain)"Saṃsāra" by Carmen Ho (UK) 2021 "Moonlight Hidden in the Clouds" by Kohsuke Negishi (Japan)"BREAKING A MIRROR" by Giorgio Francesco Dalla Villa (Italy) "TEHOM" by Jakob Gruchmann (Austria) "The echo of shadows, hallucination..." by Minchang Kang (Korea) 2022 Takuto Muromoto (Japan) KEBESU – Circle of Flame for orchestra Andrea Mattevi (Italy) Comune il principio e la fine del cerchio for symphonic orchestra Omar Hernández Lazo (Mexico) Inflamado de una álgida lejanía Mehmet Ӧzkan (Turkey/Bulgaria) Intermezzo for Orchestra "Anarchical Lament" 2023 Michael Taplin (UK) Selvedge for full orchestra Guillermo Cobo Garcia (Spain) Yabal-al-Tay for symphonic orchestra Koji Yamabe (Japan) Underscore for orchestra Yuheng Chen (China) tracé / trait für Orchester 2024 Jingyu Chen (Hong Kong SAR) Nebula for symphony orchestra Jose Luis Valdivia Arias (Spain) Al-Zahra – Three pieces for orchestra Giovanni Liguori (Italy) Hypnos – Reminiscenze oniriche per grande orchestra Alessandro Adamo (Italy) Parenthesis 2025 Suguru Wagatsuma (Japan) MATSURU for orchestra Nozomu Kaneda (Japan) The Play for Skin and Fabric for 2 orchestras not awarded Jiaying Zhou (China) Tidal Lock for orchestra Francesco Mariotti (Italy) Diptych for orchestra 2026 Jaehyeok Choi (Korea) Supernova for orchestra Ziyi Tao (US) If for orchestra Kenshi Matsuo (Japan) Variations for Orchestra Zhehe Cui (China) The Last Gamble for orchestra
References
External links Official website