2021 Busoni Composition Prize Announces Recipient

US-based Brazilian composer Igor Santos received the accolade, taking home a cash prize of 6000 Euros

Akademie der Künste Berlin's Busoni Composition Prize was donated by Aribert Reimann in 1988 and is presented every two to three years to young emerging composers.

Santos’ music is distinguished by a lively richness of sound from “artfully rhythmized and contrasting extensions of the music through everyday sounds, electronics, microtonal diffraction or resonance.”

A graduate of the University of Chicago, Eastman School of Music, and the University of South Florida, Santos is the recipient of prizes at the Luigi Nono International Competition and the RED NOTE Competition. 

The sponsorship award of 2500 Euros was given to German composer Elias Jurgschat.

The jury of the competition comprised Ludger Brümmer, Chaya Czernowin, and Johannes Kalitzke.

“This year, the piano competition and the composition prize have identified their respective prize winners only a few days apart,” the Busoni competition wrote on their social media. 

“Both initiatives unmistakably celebrate the great figure of Ferruccio Busoni and his ideal of the creative interpreter,” they continued. “Congratulations to the laureates!”

The award ceremony will take place in Berlin on November 26, 2021, where the prize-winning works will be performed alongside those by Ferruccio Busoni.