Four Bernese music prizes
The Canton of Bern is awarding the 2020 Music Prize to the Akku Quintet, composer Xavier Dayer, chansonnier Stephan Eicher and Sabina Schärer and Felix Rohner, who invented the Hang sculpture. The prizes are endowed with CHF 15,000 each.
The Akku Quintet was founded by Bernese drummer and composer Manuel Pasquinelli. He is joined by saxophonist Michael Gilsenan, pianist Maja Nydegger, guitarist Markus Ischer and bassist Andi Schnellmann. Since 2010, the five have worked on countless pieces and have released four albums to date, which have also attracted international acclaim.
Xavier Dayer, born in Geneva in 1972, studied composition in his home town with Eric Gaudibert, then with Tristan Murail and Brian Ferneyhough in Paris at the legendary IRCAM, the Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique. He has received awards for his compositions from the Bürgi-Willert Foundation and the Sandoz Foundation (FEMS Prize), among others.
Stephan Eicher, who grew up in Münchenbuchsee in the canton of Bern, has brought "Bärndüütsch" to concert halls around the world - so much so that at the end of the 1990s an audience in Paris sang along enthusiastically to his cover version of Mani Mutter's "Hemmige" without understanding the lyrics exactly.
Sabina Schärer and Felix Rohner are the creators of the sound sculpture Hang, which is played around the globe. Their long-standing collaboration began in the steel band "Berner Ölgesellschaft", the first steel band in the canton of Bern, and encompasses music-making, research into the sound of brass and sculptural work with the hammer.
This year's "Coup de cœur" prize for young talent in the amount of CHF 3,000 goes to Marie Delprat. The Bordeaux-born musician, composer and performer completed her training as a recorder player at the Bern University of the Arts in 2015 under the direction of Michael Form. She holds a master's degree in composition and theory as well as a master's degree in pedagogy.
