Arvo Part receives German Music Authors’ Prize

  • 2019-03-15
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN - Estonian composer Arvo Part received the German Music Authors' Prize (Deutscher Musikautorenpreis) in the category of choral music at a gala event in Berlin on Thursday night, Arvo Part Center said in a press release.

"On receiving the German Music Authors' Prize, I am deeply indebted and grateful to all the musicians who have breathed life into my music," Part was quoted as saying.

The German Music Authors' Prize has been awarded by the German Society for Musical Performing and Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA) since 2009 to creative members of the organization. The prize is awarded by a jury in ten categories representing different musical genres, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, which this year went to the German composer and essayist Wolfgang Rihm.

With the prize, composers recognize each other's creative work, and as a "prize from colleagues" it bears the motto, Authors Recognizing Authors. The purpose of the prize is also to highlight the cultural significance of creative activity in general.

In 1980, Arvo Part and his family had to emigrate from Soviet Estonia. Having initially settled in Vienna, the composer moved with the support of the German DAAD scholarship to Berlin a year later, where he lived for nearly 30 years. Arvo Part has been a member of GEMA since 1983.

All nominees and laureates are also accepted as members of the German Academy of Music Authors, whose task it is to select the jury of music authors every year.