German composer York Höller has won the 2010 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for Sphären, an orchestral work composed between 2001 and 2006. The Grawemeyer Award, given annually by the University of Louisville for musical composition, comes with a $200,000 cash prize. Sphären, a six-movement, 40-minute piece, was chosen from among 136 entries; the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne, Germany performed the world premiere in April 2008. Höller, a professor emeritus of music composition at Cologne University of Music, is known for his imaginative instrumentation and his pioneering work combining live and electronic sounds. His opera Master and Margarita, based on the novel by Bulgakov, had its premiere at the Paris Opera in 1989. Previous winners of the Grawameyer Award include Brett Dean (2009), Sebastian Currier (2007), and John Adams (1995).
Posted December 1, 2009
