21 November 2024

Busoni Composition Prize continues
2024 recipients: Maximiliano Alejandro Soto Mayorga and Lauren Siess

Award Ceremony and Concert, 30 November 2024, 7 pm
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz

This year’s Busoni Composition Prize goes to the Chilean composer Maximiliano Alejandro Soto Mayorga, who resides in Germany. US composer Laureen Siess is the recipient of the Sponsorship Award.

The award ceremony and concert will take place on Saturday, 30 November 2024 at the Akademie der Künste at Pariser Platz. Laudations will be held by Akademie members of the Music Section Chaya Czernowin, Hanna Hartman and Cornelius Schwehr. The welcome address will be given by Manos Tsangaris, President of the Akademie der Künste. Compositions by the two recipients of the prize and by Ferruccio Busoni, the prize’s namesake, will be performed by the ensemble mosaik and Alexey Potatov, under the direction of Magnus Loddgard. In her work, a world premiere, Siess explores the logic of an imaginary ecosystem using the sounds of the electric guitar. In his heterogeneous compositions, Soto Mayorga strives to overcome the (im)possibility of conceptualising the new by combining elements as diverse as spectral-serial thinking, traditional tonality, industrial noise and Latin American street and circus music. In memory of the founder of the prize, composer and Akademie member Aribert Reimann, who died this year, his early powerful piano composition “Spektren” will also be performed.

The Busoni Composition Prize was donated by Aribert Reimann in 1988 and is awarded every two to three years to young composers for particularly high-quality and innovative compositional approaches. The prize carries a value of 6,000 euros and its sponsorship award 2,500 euros. The Akademie der Künste is pleased to announce that Aribert Reimann made it possible for this prize to continue to be awarded even after his death. The Akademie der Künste uses this award to promote young composers; it has been awarded to composition students since 1992. The most recent recipients were Igor Santos and Elias Jurgschat (2021).

Maximiliano Alejandro Soto Mayorga, born in 1991 in Santiago, Chile, completed his composition studies in Chile with Rafael Díaz Silva and Jorge Martínez Ulloa, and in Germany with a master’s degree and Konzertexamen with Johannes Schöllhorn. His works range from scenic miniatures to chamber music formations and orchestral compositions. Soto Mayorga teaches at universities and is involved in composition courses for children. Among the prizes and awards he has received are scholarships from the Stiftung Künstlerdorf Schöppingen 2024, Neustart Kultur 2022 and Residencia Ibermúsicas 2020. He also participated in the master classes of the SWR Symphony Orchestra in 2024 and 2021. Other composition prizes include IBERMÚSICAS 2023, Ad Libitum 2024/25 and 2021/22 as well as the Composition Prize of the Academia Chilena de Bellas Artes in 2016. Since 2017, over forty works have been premiered at international festivals, including festivals such as Sommer in Stuttgart, Forum Neuer Musik, EstOvest (Turin, IT), Open Ears (Ontario, CND), .abeceda (Bled, SLO), Ensems (Valencia, E) and Nuntempa (Xalapa, MEX).

Lauren Siess, born in 1996 in the United States, is a composer, violist and improviser. She received her Bachelor’s degree in viola (2019) from New York’s Juilliard School, which she attended on a Kovner scholarship. She is currently completing her Master’s degree in composition at the Dresden College of Music. In recent years she has studied with Stefan Prins, Manos Tsangaris, Mark Andre, Sivan Cohen Elias and Hannes Seidl. In her work she explores “imaginary ecosystems” and organic processes, often in interplay between self-made instruments and standard instruments. As an improviser she performs with viola and a no-input mixer. Her most recent projects include works for the MDR Symphony Orchestra and the Arditti Quartet.

Programme
Welcome: Manos Tsangaris, President of the Akademie der Künste
Laudations: Chaya Czernowin, Hanna Hartman/Cornelius Schwehr
Ferruccio Busoni: Elegie in Es-Dur BV 286 (1919/20)
Lauren Siess: in disoriented gardens, invasive wax eats flowers (2014, UA)
Aribert Reimann: Spektren (1967)
Maximiliano Alejandro Soto Mayorga: FRAMED (2023)
Maximiliano Alejandro Soto Mayorga: Cyanotypie (2022 rev. 2024, UA)
With performances by ensemble mosaik, Alexey Potapov, Magnus Loddgard (conductor).

Event information
Busoni Composition Prize 2024
awarded to Maximiliano Alejandro Soto Mayorga (composition prize winner) and Lauren Siess (sponsorship award winner)
Award Ceremony and Concert
Saturday, 30 November 2024, 7 pm, free admission
Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin

Press tickets available at presse@adk.de, tel. 030 200 57 1514