Composer George Tsontakis Wins $200,000 Grawemeyer Award | Playbill

Related Articles
Classic Arts News Composer George Tsontakis Wins $200,000 Grawemeyer Award Composer George Tsontakis has been awarded the $200,000 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, the university announced.
Tsontakis was honored for his Violin Concerto No. 2, premiered by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in April 2003 and later recorded by the SPCO for the Koch label.

According to the composer, the piece is structured more like a chamber work than a conventional concerto, with the violinist often ceding the "solo" part to the ensemble. "The concept of 'orchestral' is diminished in deference to the concept of 'chamber,'" Tsontakis said.

Tsontakis, former director of the Riverside Orchestra in New York, is a faculty member at the Aspen Music School and founded the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble there. He has written works for the Emerson Quartet, violinist Cho-Liang Lin, and percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Pianist Stephen Hough's 1998 recording of hs Ghost Variations was nominated for a Grammy Award.

The composition prize is one of five awards given out each year by the University of Louisville's Grawemeyer Foundation, which was created by industrialist and philanthropist Charles Grawemeyer. The others recognize achievements in education, religion, psychology, and "ideas improving world order."

 
RELATED:

Explore Classic Arts:
Recommended Reading:
 X

Blocking belongs
on the stage,
not on websites.

Our website is made possible by
displaying online advertisements to our visitors.

Please consider supporting us by
whitelisting playbill.com with your ad blocker.
Thank you!