Composer Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto wins Grawemeyer Music Award

Finnish composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto has received the 2012 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. This year’s award is worth USD 100,000 (EUR 76,000).
      The annual award is granted by the University of Louisville in Kentucky and it is one of the world’s most prestigious - and valuable - awards for music composition.
      ”I am most deeply and humbly grateful”, Salonen says, pointing out that among the earlier Grawemeyer laureates, there are many important persons who have influenced him both musically and personally.
     
The previous recipients of the Grawemeyer award include for example the Pole Witold Lutoslawski (the first winner in 1985), Hungarian György Ligeti, French composer-conductor Pierre Boulez, and Finland's own Kaija Saariaho (2003).
      The winner of the 2011 Grawemeyer award was the Dutch composer and pianist Louis Andriessen.
      Salonen conducted the first performance of his Violin Concerto himself at one of his final concerts with the Los Angeles orchestra in 2009.
      The soloist on that occasion was the American violinist Leila Josefowicz.
      Salonen will record the piece for commercial release with the same soloist and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra at Helsinki’s new Music centre in May 2012.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Esa-Pekka Salonen signs on for another three years with Philharmonia Orchestra (4.11.2010)
  Esa-Pekka Salonen picks up one Grammy award and a share in another (10.2.2009)
  Esa-Pekka Salonen to conduct Janácek´s opera From the House of the Dead at Helsinki Festival (25.2.2008)

See also:
  Esa-Pekka Salonen to lead Philharmonia Orchestra in London (20.11.2006)
  Esa-Pekka Salonen named Musical America´s "Musician of the Year" (13.12.2005)
  Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho wins Grawemeyer Award (4.12.2002)

Links:
  Esa-Pekka Salonen official website
  Esa-Pekka Salonen (Wikipedia)
  Grawemeyer Awards