CHANEL Next Prize Announces 2024 Winners

Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir and bass-baritone Davóne Tines are among 10 recipients who will receive €100,000 to fund an artistic project

Founded in 2021, the NEXT Prize is part of the CHANEL Culture Fund, a global initiative for culture-advancing ideas and to extend the House of Chanel’s legacy of cultural patronage.

Awarded biennially to ten international contemporary artists who are redefining their chosen discipline, the CHANEL Next Prize is the second edition of the House’s international arts and culture prize.

As a 2024 winner, the Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir and American bass-baritone Davóne Tines will each receive €100,000 in funding to fully realize an ambitious artistic project. 

Additional opportunities include a two-year mentorship and networking program facilitated by CHANEL’s international cultural partners, including the Royal College of Art in London.

This year’s winners also include visual artists Tolia Astakhishvili and Ho Tzu Nyen, visual artist/educator Dalton Paula, filmakers Fox Maxy and Kantemir Balagov, game developer Sam Eng, choreographer Oona Doherty, and poet/musician Moor Mother.

The 2024 jury comprised actress Tilda Swinton, artist Cao Fei, and curators Legacy Russell and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

“The CHANEL Next Prize was founded to amplify the work of artists who are making a difference and redefining their discipline,” said CHANEL’s Global Head of Arts & Culture, Yana Peel in the press release. “Each is a catalyst and a pioneer. Each is disrupting established practice in their field, from art and opera to cinema and game design. Watching their creative journeys will be thrilling.” 

“It is such an honor to receive the CHANEL Next Prize from this iconic and monumental institution,” Thorvaldsdottir expressed. “It is a true pleasure to be one of the awarded artists in this wide-ranging recognition of various art forms from around the world. The prize shines an important and distinctive light on diverse fields within the arts and shows unequivocal commitment to the support of the arts and culture into the future.”

Musical America’s 2022 Vocalist of the Year, Davóne Tines has premiered numerous operas by today’s leading composers — including John Adams, Terence Blanchard, and Matthew Aucoin — and his concert appearances include performances ranging from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to Kaija Saariaho’s True Fire.

A graduate of The Juilliard School and Harvard University, Tines is Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Artist-in-Residence and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale’s first-ever Creative Partner. He is a winner of the 2020 Sphinx Medal of Excellence and the recipient of the 2018 Emerging Artists Award from Lincoln Center. 

He recently served as Artist-in-Residence at Detroit Opera — an appointment that culminated in his performance in the title role of Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X in the spring of 2022. Tines is also featured on the Grammy-nominated world premiere recording of the opera with Odyssey Opera and Boston Modern Orchestra Project, released in October 2023 on BMOP/sound.

Tines is a member of AMOC and co-creator of The Black Clown, a music-theater experience commissioned and premiered by the American Repertory Theater and presented at Lincoln Center.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s current season includes performances of her music across at least 21 countries, including the U.S., England, Ireland, China, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, and more. 

This season will also see the world premiere of her new installation piece METAXIS by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (ISO) and conductor Eva Ollikainen in June 2024 as part of the opening celebration of the 2024 Reykjavík Arts Festival.

Her works have been commissioned and performed by the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Danish String Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, BBC Proms, and Carnegie Hall. 

Thorvaldsdottir served as ISO’s Composer-in-Residence from 2018 to 2023, and was also in residence at the Aldeburgh Festival and the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music in 2023. She holds a doctorate from the University of California and is currently based in the London area.