Music Composition

Dear composers and nominators:

Nominations for the 2026 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition will open on December 2, 2024, and will close on January 28, 2025.
See below under Nomination Information for details.

Matthew Ertz
Director,
Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition

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Description

Music has the ability to inspire, to bring joy to those who hear it and those who create it. It can convey great emotion in just a few powerful notes. There is, perhaps, no greater expression of the human spirit. For this reason, the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition honors those who bring beauty and inspiration into the world.

The University of Louisville offers an international prize in recognition of outstanding achievement by a living composer in a large musical genre: choral, orchestral, chamber, electronic, song-cycle, dance, opera, musical theater, extended solo work and more. The award will be granted for a work premiered during the five-year period prior to the award deadline.

Prize Amount
The Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition is accompanied by a prize of $100,000, which is presented in full during the awards ceremony.

Eligibility
Musical works including, but not limited to, choral, orchestral, chamber, song-cycle, dance, opera, musical theater, extended solo.

In 1983, Charles Grawemeyer met with Dr. Jerry Ball, dean of the University of Louisville School of Music, to discuss establishing a prize in music, but Mr. Grawemeyer wasn’t sure what it should honor. So they talked and settled on composition, with Mr. Grawemeyer concluding, according to Dr. Ball, “If we did something like this perhaps we could find another Mozart.”

Music composition became the first of the five Grawemeyer award categories. Being first, it took almost two years to work out all the details of the program. The Nobel process was studied and incorporated in part. But Mr. Grawemeyer wanted what he termed a more “democratic” judging, eventually involving three levels: the U of L music faculty, an international jury of professionals and a lay (non-professional, but knowledgeable) panel.

In 1985, the first Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition went to Witold Lutoslawski, a Polish composer, for his Symphony No. 3.

Since then the Grawemeyer Award has achieved international recognition as the premier music composition award, regularly attracting between 150 and 200 entries from around the world.

“Charlie Grawemeyer could have gone to any school in the country, to any orchestra, any opera company, any place he might want to go to offer this prize. It’s wonderful that he kept it at home and honored his university,” said Ball.

Nominations

Nominations for the 2026 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition will open on December 2, 2024 and will close on January 28, 2025.

To receive the updated form annually, please join our mailing list. This list will not be shared in any way and will be used only a few times a year for Award-related information. Click here to join.

Description

Music has the ability to inspire, to bring joy to those who hear it and those who create it. It can convey great emotion in just a few powerful notes. There is, perhaps, no greater expression of the human spirit. For this reason, the Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition honors those who bring beauty and inspiration into the world.

The University of Louisville offers an international prize in recognition of outstanding achievement by a living composer in a large musical genre: choral, orchestral, chamber, electronic, song-cycle, dance, opera, musical theater, extended solo work and more. The award will be granted for a work premiered during the five-year period prior to the award deadline, January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2024.

Prize Amount

The Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition is accompanied by a prize of $100,000 (US), which is presented in full during the awards ceremony.

Eligibility

Musical works including, but not limited to, choral, orchestral, chamber, song-cycle, dance, opera, musical theater, extended solo. Current University of Louisville faculty, staff and students are not eligible. Graduates from the University of Louisville must wait five (5) years before they can be nominated.

Judging Criteria
Excellence, originality, and works that exhibit the power of ideas.

Nominees
Composers.

Nominators
Any organization or individual with a reasonable professional connection to the nominee and the nominated work. Examples would include professional musical organizations, performers or performing groups, soloists, conductors, critics, publishers or heads of professional music schools or departments.

Nomination Procedure

Submission of a physical full score and electronic submission, through our online nomination form, of a recording of a professional-level performance of the complete work, documentation of the premiere, supporting letter from the nominator, the composer’s biography, a photo of the composer, and the completed online nomination form. Submission details follow in the online nomination form. The nomination form will include an entry agreement that will include that the score and recording will be kept by the University for archival purposes and details other requirements.

The University of Louisville invites the submission of scores by outstanding composers throughout the world and has established the following rules and procedures for its selection of the winning work:

Each nomination for the Grawemeyer Music Award must be nominated by a professional musical organization or individual, as described above. A composer may not submit his or her own work. No more than one work of any composer may be submitted, and nominations from previous winners of this award will not be considered.

  • One physical bound copy of the full score. This is the only item to be physically mailed to the University at the address provided in the online nomination form.

The remaining materials will be submitted electronically in the online nomination form:

    • One excellent quality recording of the complete work (MP3, WAV, FLAC, MP4 or MOV). For multi-movement works, you may upload a single .zip file containing all of the movements.Ā  Please omit tuning, opening applause, spoken commentary such as radio interviews or conductor’s remarks, or any other extraneous material at the beginning or end of the audio files. Video should only be uploaded if the work includes a significant visual component.
    • Documentation of the premiere public performance of the work between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2024 (PDF). A radio broadcast or sound recording does not constitute a premiere. The printed program from the premiere performance is preferred. However, if this is not available, another form of documentation, such as a published review, or a newspaper or magazine article, will be accepted.Ā  Only one form of documentation should be included. Works may be resubmitted during the period of eligibility.
    • Program notes and texts/libretto (if applicable) in English or with English translation (PDF).
    • Supporting letter in English from the nominator (PDF), which must state nominator’s relation to the submitted work and nominator’s belief in the outstanding qualities of the work.
    • Composer’s photograph: high-res digital file (JPG, PNG or TIFF).
    • Composer’s biography in English, which should briefly outline the composer’s total achievement and recognition.
    • Completed nomination form in English.
    • Non-refundable handling fee of fifty dollars ($50.00 in U.S. currency). Payment must be made at the credit card link in the online nomination form (Visa and Mastercard Only).Ā Ā Ā Ā 
    • In the case of resubmission, entrants need not resubmit scores or recordings as these will be retrieved from the Grawemeyer Collection of Contemporary Music. However, all other required materials must be resubmitted, and the handling fee paid.
    • Please send only materials requested. Do not include press kits, reviews, articles, recordings of other works, etc.

If the work is a resubmission from a previous year, you may still upload a new recording and send a new score but may opt to not provide a recording and score and instead use the archived score and recording from the Grawemeyer Collection of Contemporary Music.

Completed nominations for the Grawemeyer Award must reach the University of Louisville by January 28, 2025. The University of Louisville will acknowledge receipt of all nominations by email only. Please allow a month after the deadline for such notification. Late or incomplete nominations will not be considered.

The winning composer will be notified in October 2025. The public announcement will be made on or around December 1, 2025 and the award will be made during March or April 2026.

The University of Louisville will retain all entered scores and recorded materials for inclusion in the Grawemeyer Collection of Contemporary Music, a part of the Dwight Anderson Memorial Music Library.

No payment will be made to the estate or heirs of a deceased composer.

Questions may be addressed via e-mail to the Award’s director at matthew.ertz@louisville.edu or grawmus@louisville.edu.

2023 – Julian Anderson

The Notre Dame Cathedral fire and the death of an esteemed colleague influenced the creation of ā€œLitanies,ā€ said Julian Anderson, a British composer named today as winner of the 2023 Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition for the work.

Read More…

2022 – Olga Neuwirth

Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth has won the 2022 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for ā€œOrlando,ā€ an opera based on a Virginia Woolf novel about a gender-switching poet whose adventures span more than three centuries.

Read More…

2021 – Lei Liang

Chinese-American composer Lei Liang, an orchestral work evoking the threat posed by climate change and the opportunity it offers for redemption.

Boston Modern Orchestra Project commissioned the winning piece, ā€œA Thousand Mountains, a Million Streams,ā€ which premiered in 2018 in Bostonā€™s Jordan Hall with Gil Rose conducting.

Read More,,,

2020 – No Award Given

2019 – Joel Bons

Dutch composer Joel Bons, ā€œNomaden,ā€ a one-hour work for cello solo and an ensemble of instruments from diverse cultures.

Read More…

2018 – Bent Sorensen

A triple concerto, “Lā€™isola della CittĆ ”Ā (The Island in the City), is for violin, cello and piano soloists and is played continuously in five movements.

Read More …

2017 –Ā Andrew Norman

In three movements, ā€œPlayā€ explores the relationship of choice and chance, free will and control.

Read More …

2016 – Hans Abrahamsen

“let me tell you,” a song cycle for soprano and orchestra, presents a first-person narrative by Ophelia, the tragic noblewoman from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”

Read More …

2015 –Ā No Award Given

2011 – Louis Andriessen

ā€œLa Commedia,ā€ a multimedia opera by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, has won the 2011 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

Read Moreā€¦

2009 – Brett Dean

“The Lost Art of Letter Writing,” a four-movement concerto for violin and orchestra by Australian composer Brett Dean, earned the 2009 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

Read Moreā€¦

2008 – Peter Lieberson

“Neruda Songs”

Read Moreā€¦

2007 – Sebastian Currier

“Static”

Read Moreā€¦

2006 – Gyƶrgy KurtĆ”g

“Concertante Op. 42”

Read Moreā€¦

2005 – George Tsontakis

“Violin Concerto No. 2”

Read Moreā€¦

2004 – Unsuk Chin

“Concerto for Violin and Orchestra”

Read Moreā€¦

2003 – Kaija Saariaho

“L`amour de loin”

Read Moreā€¦

2002 – Aaron Jay Kernis

“Colored Field”

Read Moreā€¦

2001 – Pierre Boulez

“Sur Incises”

Read Moreā€¦

2000 – Thomas AdĆØs

“Asyla”

Read Moreā€¦

1998 – Tan Dun

“Marco Polo”

Read Moreā€¦

1997 – Simon Bainbridge

“Ad Ora Incerta — Four Orchestral Songs from Primo Levi”

Read Moreā€¦

1996 – Ivan Tcherepnin

“Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra”

Read Moreā€¦

1995 – John Adams

“Violin Concerto”

Read Moreā€¦

1994 – Toru Takemitsu

“Fantasma/Cantos for Clarinet and Orchestra”

Read Moreā€¦

1993 – Karel Husa

“Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra”

Read Moreā€¦

1992 – Krzysztof Penderecki

“Adagio for Large Orchestra”

Read Moreā€¦

1991 – John Corigliano

“Symphony No. 1”

Read Moreā€¦

1990 – Joan Tower

“Silver Ladders”

Read Moreā€¦

1989 – Chinary Ung

“Inner Voices”

Read Moreā€¦

1987 – Harrison Birtwistle

“The Mask of Orpheus”

Read Moreā€¦

1986 – Gyorgy Ligeti

“Etudes for Piano”

Read Moreā€¦

1985 – Witold Lutoslawski

“Symphony No. 3”

Read Moreā€¦

2024 Recipient

Aleksandra Vrebalov (photo by Zeljko Mandic)

Nontraditional choral work wins 2024 music composition prize
By Denise Fitzpatrick

Serbian-American composer Aleksandra Vrebalov has won the 2024 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition for ā€œMissa Supratext,ā€ a nontraditional choral work for string quartet and girlsā€™ chorus.

Kronos Quartet, a group long known for nurturing musical innovation, and San Francisco Girlsā€™ Chorus, a Bay Area group for young women from diverse backgrounds, premiered the 22-minute work in 2018 in San Francisco with Valerie Sainte-Agathe conducting. The piece also incorporates bells, Tibetan bowls and musical saw.

ā€œā€˜Missa Supratextā€™ is unrelated to any religion because the creative force driving all life does not care about culture, language or religion,ā€ Vrebalov said. ā€œThe words are made up and have no meaning. The piece goes beyond verbal narrative to show how all life on our planet is interconnected.ā€

The workā€™s Latin title translates to ā€œMass Above Wordsā€ in English.

ā€œVrebalovā€™s music transports and envelops the listener,ā€ said Matthew Ertz, music award director. ā€œHer winning piece emphasizes the universality of human expression through music, bypassing a single language, style or tradition. She blends together diverse harmonies, rhythms, styles and improvisations, conveying her devotion to music and to the uniqueness of all things.ā€

Vrebalov, 53, who lives in New York City, moved to the United States in 1995 and became a U.S. citizen in 2015. She has composed more than 90 works, including orchestral, chamber, opera and experimental pieces. She often starts by drawing and painting colorful images reflecting her ideas before converting the images into musical notation.

Ensembles worldwide have performed her compositions. Kronos Quartet alone has premiered 15 since 1997, and more than 25 other organizations such as Carnegie Hall and the English National Ballet have commissioned her work. Composers Edition in the United Kingdom distributes her self-published scores.

Vrebalov taught music at Serbiaā€™s Novi Sad University and City University of New York and has been a resident or visiting artist on three continents. The Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Golden Emblem from the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs are among her honors.

Recipients of the 2024 Grawemeyer Awards are being named this week pending formal trustee approval. The annual $100,000 prizes also honor seminal ideas in world order, psychology, education and religion. Recipients will visit Louisville in the spring to accept their awards and give free talks on their winning ideas.

Video Interviews with Past Recipients

Trio tries to escape shadows of the orchestra inĀ Lā€™isola della CittĆ 
2018 Music Composition Recipient Bent Sorensen

‘Play’ Explores Choice and Chance, Free Will and Control
2017 Music Composition Recipient Andrew Norman

Adding Emotional Depth and Nuance to Limited Words
2016 Music Composition Recipient Hans Abrahamsen

Music has the Power to Make our Lives Better
2014 Music Composition Recipient Djuro Zivkovic

An Innovative Fusion of Musical and Visual Art
2013 Music Composition Recipient Michel van der Aa

Eclectic Influences and Distinct Personality
2012 Music Composition Recipient Esa-Pekka Salonen

Multimedia Opera Drawn from Dante
2011 Music Composition Recipient Louis Andriessen

Inspired by Music, Love
2010 Music Composition Recipient York Hoeller

Interview WithĀ Brett Dean
2009 Music Composition RecipientĀ Brett Dean

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