The Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (武満徹作曲賞, Takemitsu Tōru sakkyoku-shō) is a prestigious international music competition for young composers organized in Tokyo, Japan.[1]
History
The Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (annual competition of orchestral composition), which is an international composition award following Toru Takemitsu's principle "Prayer, Hope, Peace", continues since 1997 to encourage younger generations of composers who will shape the coming age by creating new musical works.
The nucleus of this award is in its uniqueness that each year only one judge is responsible for its outcome. For the first 3-year cycle, Takemitsu himself chose the following three composers to head the competition: Henri Dutilleux (1997), György Ligeti (1998), and Luciano Berio (1999). Then, after Takemitsu's death, the three successors, Louis Andriessen (2000 recommended by Berio), Oliver Knussen (2001 recommended by Dutilleux) and Joji Yuasa (2002 recommended by Ligeti) were nominated by the initial judges.
For the third 3-year cycle (2003–2005), George Benjamin (2003), Magnus Lindberg (2004) and John Adams (2005 • cancelled) were nominated by recommendation from the Advisors (Hiroyuki Iwaki, Oliver Knussen, Kent Nagano, Kazushi Ohno, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Hiroshi Wakasugi) and preceding judges.
For the fourth 3-year cycle (2007–2009), the selection by the Advisors Committee members and the previous judges were Akira Nishimura (2007), Steve Reich (2008) and Helmut Lachenmann (2009).
Tristan Murail (2010), Salvatore Sciarrino (2011) and Toshio Hosokawa (2012) have been appointed as judges for the new 3-year cycle.[2]
The nominated pieces are performed at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.[2][3]
Fifty different composers have been nominated for this prize since its inception in 1997 (updated as of 2011 prize).
The total sum of the cash award is 3,000,000 Yen each year.[4]
Results
| Year | Judge | 1st prize | 2nd prize | 3rd prize | 4th prize | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Henri Dutilleux | not awarded |
| PAGAN II by Marc Kenneth Yeats | ||
| 1998 | György Ligeti | not awarded | not awarded | not awarded | ||
| 1999 | Luciano Berio | "Uninterrupted Song" by Katsuji Maeda | "DINAMORPHIA" by Ken Itō | "Polychrome" by Toshiya Watanabe | ||
| 2000 | Louis Andriessen | "L'été – L'oubli rouge" by Jun Nagao | "AWAKENINGS" by Joe Cutler | "Pulsating" by Sho Ueda | ||
| 2001 | Oliver Knussen |
| "5 pieces for orchestra" by Luke Bedford | "Stein/Stern" by Ryuji Kubota | ||
| 2002 | Joji Yuasa |
|
| "Tzolkin" by Michael John Wiley | [7] | |
| 2003 | George Benjamin | "Allégories" by Joël Mérah | "Calling Timbuktu" by Dai Fujikura |
| ||
| 2004 | Magnus Lindberg | "Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams" by Paul Stanhope |
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| 2005 | John Adams | The competition was cancelled | ||||
| 2006 | There was no competition | |||||
| 2007 | Akira Nishimura | "Never Stand Behind Me" by Sho Ueda | "CUBE" by Andrea Portera |
| ||
| 2008 | Steve Reich | "What dou you think about the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?" by Yuichi Matsumoto | "La Noche de Takemitsu" by Tomás Barreiro |
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| 2009 | Helmut Lachenmann | "Hexagonal Pulsar" by Kenji Sakai |
|
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| 2010 | Tristan Murail | "...Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion" by Roberto Toscano (Brazil) |
| "Deux Presages" by Chikako Yamanaka (Japan) | ||
| 2011 | Salvatore Sciarrino | "Flux et reflux" by Florent Motsch-Etienne (France) | "Subliminal" by Bernd Richard Deutsch (Austria) |
| [8] | |
| 2012 | Toshio Hosokawa | "Mano d'erba, per orchestra" by Federico Gardella (Italy) | "Une Œuvre pour l'Echo des Rêves (II), pour orchestra" by Ioannis Angelakis (Greece) |
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| 2013 | Harrison Birtwistle | "SIGHS – hommage à Fryderyk Chopin" by Marcin Stańczyk (Poland) | "The Lark in the Snow" by Sumio Kobayashi (Japan) |
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| 2014 | Peter Eötvös | "THE NORTHERN CAMELLIA – GRADATION OF SOUNDING AMITY No. 2" by Kei Daigo (Japan) | "Until the Sea Above Us Is Closed Again" Giovanni Dario Manzini (Italy) |
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| 2015 | Kaija Saariaho |
|
| not awarded | [9] | |
| 2016 | Toshi Ichiyanagi |
|
| not awarded | ||
| 2017 | Heinz Holliger | "Paysages entrelacés pour orchestre" by Naoki Sakata (Japan) |
| not awarded | ||
| 2018 | Unsuk Chin |
|
| not awarded | [10] | |
| 2019 | Philippe Manoury |
| "Im Bauch des Fisches drei Tage und drei Nächte " by Siqi Liu (China) | "At The End Of Snow Line" by Zhuosheng Jin (China) | ||
| 2020 | Thomas Adès | "BORÉAS" by Xinyang Wang (China) | "SIX PRAYERS" by David Roche (UK) | "POÈMES DE MIDI" by Francisco Domínguez (Spain) | "Saṃsāra" by Carmen Ho (UK) | |
| 2021 | Pascal Dusapin | "Moonlight Hidden in the Clouds" by Kohsuke Negishi (Japan) | "BREAKING A MIRROR" by Giorgio Francesco Dalla Villa (Italy) |
|