Spoerri honored with Golden Medal of Honor
The Canton of Zurich honors jazz musician and computer music pioneer Bruno Spoerri with the Golden Medal of Honor. This year, the canton's Culture Prize, endowed with 50,000 francs, is awarded to comedian and director Ueli Bichsel, while a sponsorship award goes to spoken word pioneer Roland Jurczok.
Spoerri, who celebrates his 80th birthday this year, is a modest, curious artist who has consciously experienced and skillfully helped shape the turbulent artistic and musical developments of the last 60 years, writes the canton.
He began his career in the 1950s as a saxophonist in various jazz formations. Very early on, he also began to explore the possibilities of synthetic sound production. Spoerri made a name for himself as a composer, producer, sound engineer and director of the Zurich Jazz Festival. As an editor, he has also created standard works on the history of jazz and computer music in Switzerland.
The 62-year-old clown Ueli Bichsel started out as a director in 1980 with the production "Zwischen den Zeilen Theater". In 1981, he founded the theater group "Die Lufthunde" and the association Kultur im Zelt "Zirkus Theater Federlos", with which he toured Europe and Africa for many years.
The Canton of Zurich sponsorship prize is endowed with CHF 40,000. It is awarded to artists who are considered to have special artistic potential. This year's recipient Roland Jurczok regularly performs together with the writer Melinda Nadj Abonji, but can currently also be seen with solo programs at international festivals.
