The Wihuri Sibelius Prize has been awarded to British composer Rebecca Saunders.
The Wihuri Sibelius Prize is one of the most prestigious international awards in classical music. It is presented to composers who have achieved significant international recognition and established a distinguished artistic career, and is valued at €150,000.
Berlin-based composer Rebecca Saunders (b. 1967) is one of the most significant voices in contemporary music. Her work explores the sculptural, spatial and physical properties of organised sound, creating intensely focused and distinctive musical worlds.
The expert committee describes Saunders’ music as characterised by a unique balance between distance and presence:
“Saunders’ music could be described as a sculptural movement: sound sculptures rich in detail rise from silence like physical forms. Her music is fragile, yet at the same time intense and relentless.
Such a sound – already marked by an inherent contradiction – is at the heart of Saunders’ musical expression, from which she constructs her entire sonic world.
Her passionate interest in the timbral properties of sound makes Saunders a continuation of the modernist tradition. Throughout her impressive career, she has consciously developed her sound world in an increasingly distinctive and uncompromising direction. The result is a series of unique musical worlds that explore the direction and depth of sound with extraordinary precision, repeatedly exposing the listener to transformations of sonic surfaces as the music moves between immense power and silence.”
Saunders says
“I am absolutely delighted and honored to accept this prestigious award. Shining a light on the arts, recognizing the vital importance of contemporary music and art that speaks of our time, is essential. Art mirrors the emotional and socio-political complexities of our time. Music provokes and reveals the truths hidden beneath the delicate surface of modern society. In today's fragile world, protecting the absolute autonomy of art is a necessity we must fiercely defend”.
The prize was first awarded to Jean Sibelius in 1953. Previous laureates include Witold Lutosławski, Igor Stravinsky and Kaija Saariaho, among many other leading composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. The most recent laureate, in 2023, was French composer Tristan Murail.
