Just in: NY Phil picks three composers for big bucks prize
Orchestraspress release:
The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music at the New York Philharmonic has been awarded to American composers David Lang and Missy Mazzoli*. One of the world’s largest new-music prizes, the Kravis Prize includes $200,000 and a commission for a work that the New York Philharmonic will premiere. Lang’s new work will be premiered in the 2025–26 season, and Mazzoli’s will be premiered in 2026–27.
Additionally, the NY Phil has named Kate Soper the Kravis Emerging Composer, an honor bestowed as part of The Marie-Josée Kravis Prize for New Music. Soper receives a $50,000 stipend, including a commission to compose a work that the Philharmonic will premiere in May 2025.
With the decline of the Grawemeyer, the Kravis may now be the world’s biggest prize for a living composer.
*pictured
David Lang: A candidate for the most over-rated classical composer of his generation? William Robin’s book “Industry” makes very clear that Lang’s principal gift is as a self-promoter. He ought to have gone into PR and advertising and left it at that.
For whatever it’s worth, I quite like David Lang’s music.
Both “composers” reflect the sad state of “new music” at the NY Philharmonic.
I am happy for Missy.
Decline of the Grawemeyer? Sure, there have been some works awarded the prize that probably raise eyebrows– but overall they’ve done a great job focusing on the music above all else.
Anybody commenting negatively about the work of these Great Composers is jealous and had wanted to get that money himself.
Curious how Kate Soper is labeled an “emerging composer.” According to Wikipedia, she’s 43 and got some of her first big commissions around 2006. But hey, more power to her.
Any composer who can gain compensation for their art deserves it. Most of us keep looking at the growing pile of scores in our desk drawer and head out to our daytime jobs.
Congratulations!!!
Count me among the David Lang fans as well! Happy for all three of them.
The Grawemeyer is hardly in decline. Where do you get this rubbish, Norman? Sure, Kravis gives a lot more money, but is awarded sporadically, at best. Grawemeyer is $100K annually and going for 40 years in 2025.
Grawemeyer is down to $100k, used to be $150. Its selections are wayward and its visibility reduced.
Caroline Shaw i adore. And remember. Only hears underdtandibg and ipsa dixit. Will have to live with Soper’s music for awhile. Like a lit og todats mudic very little attaches itself to mind or memory. Like Boulez it will take time. I love Mazzoli her operas are everywhere. Lang s name is everywhere but his music i dont remember being impressed with. Pintscher is my favorite.
Don’t worry, I have that too, quite often.
Sally
Mr Lang denies any contemporary or universal relevance of music written 200 years ago, because he thinks that such music referred to the situation of 200 years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB9KgjA5xgY
Conclusion: Mr Lang does not understand what classical music IS. And therefore he is awarded for his contributions.
And how do they sound?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wZANtHQe7E
The usual poppy American stuff for people for whom classical music is too difficult; which is confirmed by Mr Lang’s explanation that ‘classical music’ for him is the same as what rap and hophip is for his friends. So, indeed, it must be very relevant for the ‘situation of now’. Whether that is a good thing, is another question….. I think it is entirely harmless.
And then our lady:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn5EexK8c6Y
She writes comparable poppy stuff, but occasionally spreads her wings and becomes more serious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0bwlkKFpF4
Of the two, I think Mrs Mazzoli is much more gifted than Mr Lang and maybe the latter should give his prize money to the former.
Why can’t Americans clean their ears of pop music, when they want to be ‘a composer’? There are others who show it can be done.
Hard to know what you mean by “pop” – I don’t hear it in their music. But if the insinuation is that we Americans should start embracing music that sounds like that of post-war European modernists who play to half-empty halls of college professors, I think those days are largely over here. Orchestras are trying all they can to try and make themselves more accessible, not less.
There are excellent American contemporary composers who write music that is both accessible and sophisticated:
Daniel Asia
Jonathan Leshnoff
Aaron Jay Kernis
Jennifer Higdon
Pierre Jalbert
Daniel Gilliam
Jake Heggie
Paul Moravic
Lera Auerbach
Richard Danielpour
No pop in their music, and (as far as I know) no minimalism.
But I think that makes them, in many people’s ears, ‘too serious’ or ‘too European’ or ‘too traditional’. It’s like rejecting silver cutlery and replace it by plastic because that is reflecting the present times ‘better’.
And Bore-slap wrote above:
“Anybody commenting negatively about the work of these Great Composers is jealous and had wanted to get that money himself.”
I always regretted he rejected enormous sums for writing film music because we need some serious reparations be done here, and I need a new computer and some holidays.
Sally