The Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition () is an annual prize instituted by Henry Charles Grawemeyer, industrialist and entrepreneur, at the University of Louisville in 1984. The award was first given in 1985. Subsequently, the Grawemeyer Award was expanded to other categories: Ideas Improving World Order (instituted in 1988), Education (1989), Religion (1990) and Psychology (2000). The prize fund was initially an endowment of US$9 million from the Grawemeyer Foundation. The initial awards were for $150 000 each, increasing to $200 000 for the year 2000 awards. After the economic crash of 2008, the prize was reduced to $100,000.
The selection process includes three panels of judges. The first is a panel of faculty from the University of Louisville or outside experts as needed, who hosts and maintains the perpetuity of the award. The second is a panel of music professionals, often involving conductors, performers, scholars, critics and composers (most frequently the previous winner) who have a particular expertise in contemporary music. The final decision is made by a lay panel of new music enthusiasts who are not professional musicians, yet are highly knowledgeable about the state of new music. This final committee of amateurs makes the final prize determination because Grawemeyer insisted that great ideas are not exclusively the domain of academic experts.
The award has most often been awarded to large-scale works, such as symphonies, concerti, and operas. Only two Award-winning pieces (György Ligeti's Études, for piano; and Sebastian Currier's Static, for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano) do not require a conductor in performance.
Only four years have seen no prize awarded. In 1988, the second panel, consisting of professional musicians (which that year included previous winner Harrison Birtwistle) determined that no work was deserving of the award. In 1999, the awarding of the prize was moved from the fall semester to the spring semester due to the University of Louisville's bicentennial celebrations, which meant that that year's winner (Thomas Adès) was given the prize in the spring of 2000 rather than the fall of 1999. No award was given in 2015 or 2020.
Recipients of the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition
Year Recipient Composition Notes1985 Witold Lutosławski Symphony No. 3 (1973–1983) for orchestra1986 György Ligeti Études Book 1 (1985) for piano1987 Harrison Birtwistle The Mask of Orpheus (1984) opera1988 not awarded1989 Chinary Ung Inner Voices (1986) for orchestra1990 Joan Tower Silver Ladders (1986) for orchestra1991 John Corigliano Symphony No. 1 (1988) for orchestra1992 Krzysztof Penderecki Symphony No. 4 "Adagio" (1989) for large orchestra1993 Karel Husa Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1988) 1994 Toru Takemitsu Fantasma/Cantos (1991) for clarinet and orchestra1995 John Adams Violin Concerto (1993) 1996 Ivan Tcherepnin Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra (1995) 1997 Simon Bainbridge Ad Ora Incerta – Four Orchestral Songs from Primo Levi (1994) for mezzo-soprano, bassoon and orchestra; poems by Primo Levi1998 Tan Dun Marco Polo (1995) opera1999 not awarded2000 Thomas Adès Asyla, Op. 17 (1997) for orchestra2001 Pierre Boulez Sur Incises (1996–1998) for 3 pianos, 3 harps and 3 mallet instruments2002 Aaron Jay Kernis Colored Field (1994/2000) for cello and orchestra2003 Kaija Saariaho L'Amour de loin (2000) opera2004 Unsuk Chin Violin Concerto (2001) 2005 George Tsontakis continued on page B2 Violin Concerto No. 2 (2003) 2006 György Kurtág ...Concertante..., Op. 42 (2003) for violin, viola and orchestra2007 Sebastian Currier Static (2003) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano2008 Peter Lieberson Neruda Songs (2005) song-cycle for mezzo-soprano and orchestra; poems by Pablo Neruda2009 Brett Dean The Lost Art of Letter Writing (2006) violin concerto2010 York Höller Sphären (2001–2006) for orchestra2011 Louis Andriessen continued on page B4 La Commedia (2004–2008) multimedia opera based on Dante's The Divine Comedy2012 Esa-Pekka Salonen Violin Concerto (2008–2009) 2013 Michel van der Aa Up-Close, Concerto (2010) for cello, string ensemble and film2014 Đuro Živković On the Guarding of the Heart (2011) for chamber orchestra2015 not awarded 2016 Hans Abrahamsen let me tell you (2013) for soprano and orchestra2017 Andrew Norman Play (2013/2016) for orchestra2018 Bent Sørensen L'isola della Città (2016) for violin, cello, piano and orchestra2019 Joël Bons Nomaden (2016) for cello solo with multinational instrumental ensemble2020 not awarded 2021 Lei Liang A Thousand Mountains, A Million Streams (2017) for orchestra2022 Olga Neuwirth Orlando (2019) opera based on the novel by Virginia Woolf2023 Julian Anderson Litanies (2018) concerto for cello and orchestra2024 Aleksandra Vrebalov Missa Supratext (2018) for girls' chorus and string quartet2025 Christian Mason Invisible Threads (2022–23) for bass clarinet, accordion, vocal sextet and string quartet2026 Liza Lim A Sutured World (2024) for cello and orchestra
References
External links The Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition