An award for crossover composers
mainWho’d have thought?
The competition takes place in Mannheim every three years.
It was won yesterday by an American, Benedikt Bryden, a graduate of the Richard Strauss Academy in Munich. Hs winning entry was entitled Schillers Nachtflug, neatly combining German classicism with modern aviation.
Or so it’s reported.
We can’t find any reference online to a composer called Bryden. It may be Benedikt Brydern, who writes like this:
Of course it is. The most cursory glance “online” would verify it, as it is the first item of news to come up for this man. AND, he has won the award before.
His credentials seem solid. His composition that you linked seemed cinematic to me and a quick check showed that it was indeed from a film score.
Perhaps you think the award ought to have gone to someone else?
This is not a big “serious” competition for composers, it’s something created by a violin duo, “The Twiolins”, and the final vote was made by the public. Also, the composition should have less than 5 minutes. And yes, it’s “crossover” stuff they wanted. Everything was pretty clear. And Brydern (with r) ran again this year and won again (5000 euros, by the way!). I say good for him.
Here is the winning piece from 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=45&v=-AJ03-ekoM0
This music is not exactly my cup of tea, but who cares? What could be expected of such a competition? By the way, I do see many positive things in it, even if everything is not to my own liking.
I’m sorry to say, but I feel that the German text was not really understood…