Ansgar Beste honored
The German Ansgar Beste wins the composition competition of the Christoph Delz Foundation, which is endowed with 50,000 Swiss francs. The prize-winning work "In the steppes of Sápmi" will be premiered at this year's Lucerne Festival.
According to the foundation, the Ansgar Bestborn in Malmö in 1981 and living in Norway, completed his studies (2002-2013) with degrees in conducting, composition, piano, music theory and cultural management. His composition teachers were Michael Obst (Weimar), Luca Francesconi (Malmö), Adriana Hölszky (Salzburg), Wolfgang Rihm (Karlsruhe), Hanspeter Kyburz (Berlin) and Beat Furrer (Graz).
In 2010 he won 1st prize at the 55th Composition Prize of the State Capital Stuttgart, in 2011 the ZEITklang Prize 2011 (Austria), in 2012 2nd prize at the Uppsala Composition Competition. He received commissions from IGNM Austria in 2011, from Ensemble intercontemporain in 2012 and for a work for the Acusticum organ in Piteå (Sweden) in 2014. He also received scholarships from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music 2008-12, from the Free State of Bavaria, from the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt 2012, from the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the State of Lower Saxony 2014. His music has been performed at festivals in Scandinavia, Central Europe and South America as well as in New York.
In the steppes of Sápmi reflects the repetitive, steppe-like landscape of Sápmi (Lapland) by combining six animal joiks (i.e. Sami folk songs imitating the animals of the region) with vocal preparation, extended vocal techniques and elements of vocal percussion. The work was selected by an international jury of five (Carola Bauckholt, Dorothea Bossert, Luisa Castellani, Roland Moser and Mark Sattler) from over sixty submissions from all over the world.
The composition competition of the Christoph Del Foundationz, based in Basel, was held for the sixth time in 2015; it will continue to take place every three years in future. The foundation established by Swiss pianist and composer Christoph Delz (1950-1993) is thus fulfilling its main purpose. This year's competition is being held for the third time in collaboration with the Lucerne Festival. The prize is endowed with 50,000 Swiss francs. The Christoph Delz Foundation is also supporting the world premiere of the work by the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart under the direction of Marcus Creed on September 13, 2015.
Previous winners were Thomas Amann (Austria) in 2012, Hans Thomalla (Germany) and Michael Pelzel (Switzerland) in 2006, Sam Hayden (Great Britain) in 2003 and Nora Elsa Ponte (Argentina) in 2000.
