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Beat Furrer Awarded the 2018 International Ernst von Siemens Music Prize

Apr. 03, 2018

Beat Furrer Awarded the 2018 International Ernst von Siemens Music Prize

We are delighted to report that the 2018 International Ernst von Siemens Music Prize will be awarded to Beat Furrer for his lifetime achievement. The awards ceremony will take place in Munich’s Prince Regent Theatre on May 3. Klangforum Wien will join the ceremony in a performance of Furrer's canti della tenebra for mezzo-soprano and ensemble, sung by Tanja Ariane Baumgartner and conducted by the laureate himself. The laudatory address will be delivered by Thomas Macho, an Austrian authority on culture and the head of the International Research Centre for Cultural Studies (IFK) in Vienna.

For many years Beat Furrer has left an indelible mark on modern music, whether as a conductor, as the founder of influential institutions such as Klangforum Wien and Impuls Akademie Graz, as a professor of composition or as a much sought-after teacher. Furrer declares, "Music must be able to focus the attention on the voice in such a way that the voice itself does the narration. Just as I search for possible forms of narrative, I also search for “melody” – a melody in embryo, in the intervening space between language and vocal sound, integrated in an instrumental texture as its prolongation and transformation. The result is expressivity and narrative beyond the boundaries of language." Since 1999, Beat Furrer's works have been published by Bärenreiter Verlag in Kassel, Germany.

For an engaging feature on Beat Furrer from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, please click here.
For more information on the life and music of Beat Furrer, please visit: baerenreiter.com.

Listen to Beat Furrer's FAMA (2005) here:


(The Talea Ensemble presents the US premiere of Furrer's FAMA in 2013/
Talea Ensemble and Ekmeles Ensemble/James Baker, conductor)


Beat Furrer
Canti della tenebra (2013)
for mezzo-soprano and ensemble
2(2.pic, afl).2.2(2bcl).cbcl(bcl).tsax(ssax).1.cbsn-2.2.2.1-2perc-hp.pno.acc-str(2.2.2.2)
25’

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