Heinz Holliger receives Grand Prix Music 2015
This year's winner of the Swiss Grand Prix Music 2015, which is endowed with CHF 100,000, is the oboist, conductor and composer Heinz Holliger. The award ceremony took place in Basel Cathedral in the presence of Federal Councillor Alain Berset.
The prizewinner, who is currently on tour in Japan, commented on his award during a live broadcast. Heinz Holliger was selected from the fifteen nominees put forward by the Federal Jury for Music.
Holliger was born in Langenthal in 1939 and studied oboe, piano and composition in Bern, Paris and Basel. He won first prize at the Concours de Genève in 1959, followed by an award at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1961. Holliger became internationally renowned as an oboist and played pieces written especially for him by composers such as Berio, Carter and Ligeti. As a conductor, he regularly works with renowned symphony orchestras, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Swiss Grand Prix Music was awarded for the second time with the aim of "recognizing outstanding and innovative Swiss music and bringing it to the public's attention".
In 2014, the FOC mandated a team of ten experts consisting of music journalists, musicians and music experts. The team selected candidates from all language regions of Switzerland and from all music genres to submit to the Federal Music Jury. In May 2015, the seven-member jury selected fifteen finalists from the fifty or so musicians nominated and ultimately selected the winner, Heinz Holliger, from among these nominees.
The fifteen nominees for the Swiss Grand Prix Music 2015 were: Philippe Albèra (Geneva), Nik Bärtsch (Zurich), Malcolm Braff (Vevey / Le Mont Pèlerin), Markus Flückiger (Schwyz), Joy Frempong (Bolgatanga (GH) / Zurich), Marcel Gschwend aka Bit-Tuner (St. Gallen / Zurich), Heinz Holliger (Basel), Daniel Humair (Geneva / Paris), Joke Lanz (Basel / Berlin), Christian Pahud (Lausanne), Annette Schmucki (Zurich / Cormoret), Bruno Spoerri (Zurich), Cathy van Eck (Zurich), Nadir Vassena (Lugano) and Christian Zehnder (Basel). They will each receive prize money of CHF 25,000.
