Winner of the Happy New Ears Initiative 2015
For the third time, the Happy New Ears prizes in the categories of composition and journalism on New Music will be awarded to personalities who have rendered outstanding services to the support and further development of New Music.
The Hans and Gertrud Zender Foundation has awarded prizes to the composer Rebecca Saunders (prize money 10,000 euros) and the music critic Gerhard Rohde (prize money 8,000 euros). The philosopher Christian Grüny received a sponsorship award (4000 euros).
A student of Wolfgang Rihm and Nigel Osborne, she now teaches as a professor at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and has been a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts since 2009. Gerhard Rohde is co-editor of the Neue Musikzeitung and works as a freelancer for the FAZ. He was awarded the Happy New Ears Prize for Journalism for his decades of critical reporting in the field of New Music.
The Hans and Gertrud Zender Foundation, founded by composer and conductor Hans Zender in 2004, has been awarding a prize in the fields of composition and journalism every two years since 2011.
