One of the major music prizes is the Nordic Council Music Prize (which has been awarded since 1965). The prize is awarded for musicianship of the highest standard, to a piece by a living composer one year and to an ensemble or group the next. In 2022, composers will be nominated.
From Sweden, Karin Rehnqvist is nominated for her work Silent Earth, composed for orchestra and mixed choir and premiered in Amsterdam, in January 2022. Texts by Kerstin Perski.
Rationales
Silent Earth is a bewildering and powerfully encouraging work. With the climate catastrophe as its foundation, a dramatic musical narrative emerges and leads the listener from ice into a fire with a relentless force. In her work, Rehnqvist reveals her almost absolute mastery of the craft, and she manages to demonstrate the capacity of music to simultaneously define time and space, and provide an emotional experience, free for everyone to interpret.
Here you can listen to Silent Earth ›
There are no restrictions on the genre when the prize is given to a composer. However, it should be given to a now living composer. The work must meet high artistic requirements and within its genre be considered innovative, it is said.
The prize money is 300,000 Danish kroner (approx. 40,300 Euros).
The evaluation committee selects the winners
The Nordic Council of Ministers appoints a Nordic assessment committee, which decides on the prize. The assessment committee consists of one member from each of the five Nordic countries.
In cases where proposals have been received from one of the autonomous territories – the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland – a representative of such an area has the right to participate in the assessment committee’s work.
