The Forberg-Schneider Foundation is awarding the Belmont Prize for Contemporary Music to composer Mirela Ivičević. For the first time, the prize is endowed with €25,000 (previously €20,000). The award ceremony will take place on May 22, 2025 at 6.30 pm in the Gartensaal of the Prinzregententheater in Munich.
“Mirela Ivičević writes music full of power and humor,” the Board of Trustees explains its decision and adds:
“With an impulsive yet playful gesture, Mirela Ivičević arranges elaborate instrumental and electronic sounds whose color spectrum is mixed with precisely heard everyday sounds. The Vienna-based composer from Split calls her worldly narratives for the ear ‘Sonic Fictions’. The harsh contrasts of her sound language point to a thoroughly confrontational coexistence of widely divergent layers of time and meaning. Ivičević’s sensorium for the creative thrust of such tensions shows what a committed, politically-minded artist is at work here.”
Mirela Ivičević says of the award: “The award came as a complete surprise, I am still amazed to be named in such an outstanding list of award recipients. It really is an honor!”
The composer was born in Split, Croatia, in 1980 and now lives in Vienna. Her oeuvre includes chamber music and orchestral works, electro-acoustic and intermedia works, theater and film music. Her compositions are performed at international festivals and interpreted by renowned ensembles such as Klangforum Wien and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. She works closely with the Black Page Orchestra, an experimental collective that she co-founded in 2014.
Mirela Ivičević received her profound technical training on the piano in her childhood and youth, later studying composition and music theory with Željko Brkanović, media composition and applied music with Klaus-Peter Sattler and composition with Beat Furrer. She also works as a performer and curator.
Founded in 1997, the Forberg-Schneider Foundation promotes outstanding achievements in the field of contemporary music. One of the ways it does this is by awarding the Belmont Prize, which is usually awarded every two years. The prize is one of the most highly endowed awards for artistic creation in Europe. Board of Trustees: Gabriele Forberg-Schneider (Chair), Anselm Cybinski, Florian Ganslmeier.
Previous winners of the Belmont Prize for Contemporary Music:
2022: Sarah Aristidou, Sopranistin (Berlin) • 2020: Florian Weber, Pianist und Komponist (Osnabrück, New York) • 2018: Eamonn Quinn, Kurator und Begründer LCMS (Dundalk) • 2015: Milica Djordjević, Komponistin (Belgrad, Köln) • 2013: Sabrina Hölzer, Regisseurin (Berlin) • 2012: Alex Ross, Autor und Musikkritiker (New York) • 2009: Marino Formenti, Pianist und Dirigent (Wien) • 2007: Bruno Mantovani, Komponist (Paris) • 2005: Quatuor Ébène, Streichquartett (Paris) • 2004: Carolin Widmann, Geigerin (Leipzig) • 2001: Florent Boffard, Pianist (Paris) • 1999: Jörg Widmann, Komponist und Klarinettist (München, Berlin)
Translated from the German original by Arianna Alfreds.