Busoni Composition Prize
Every two years since 1988, the Akademie der Künste has honoured young composers with the Busoni Composition Prize for particularly high-quality and innovative compositional approaches. In 2024, the recipients are Chilean composer Maximiliano Alejandro Soto Mayorga (Busoni Composition Prize) and US violist and composer Lauren Siess (Sponsorship Prize).
In a world premiere, Siess explores the logic of an imaginary ecosystem using the sounds of the electric guitar. In his heterogeneous compositions, Soto strives to overcome the impossibility of conceptualising the new.
In memory of the founder of the prize, composer and Akademie member Aribert Reimann who died in 2024, his early powerful and sonorous piano composition Spectren will be performed. Supporting young composers was always important to Reimann, as was keeping the work of Ferruccio Busoni, the prize’s namesake, alive through a performance as part of the concert.