Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis

City of Heidelberg Music Prize for female composers

The Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis is one of the state's most important cultural prizes and the only award in the world to be given exclusively to female composers.

The Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2017. It was initiated by Roswitha Sperber in 1987, and since 2007 the prize has been awarded as a municipal music prize by the City of Heidelberg and celebrated by the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, which performs one orchestral work by each prize winner as part of one of their Philharmonic Concerts. Deutschlandfunk, the long-time media partner, records the Preisträgerinnen-Konzert and transmits it throughout Germany at different times together with a feature on the prized composer. The prize is endowed with 5,000 Euros.

It is awarded by a jury composed of persons with expertise in the field of contemporary music, who are appointed by the mayor and the chair of the jury. Permanent members by dint of their position are the director of the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, Holger Schultze, the general music director of the city of Heidelberg, Elias Grandy, and the concert dramatic advisor of the Philharmonisches Orchester, Stefan Klawitter. Further members are Frank Kämpfer (New Music editor, Deutschlandfunk), Prof. Walter Nussbaum (KlangForum Heidelberg), Ulrike Schumann and Thomas Böckstiegel (Directors of Opera at Theater and Orchester Heidelberg) as well as Heike Hoffmann (Director of Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele).

The prize has in the past been awarded to recognized artists including Adriana Hölszky, Sofia Gubaidulina, Olga Neuwirth, Kaija Saariaho, Isabel Mundry and Jamilia Jazylbekova. The latest recipients of the Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis were Lucia Ronchetti (2014), Iris ter Schiphorst (2015), Chaya Czernowin (2016), Ying Wang (2017), Zeynep Gedizlioğlu (2018), Elena Mendoza (2019), Bettina Skrzypczak (2020), Karola Obermüller (2021) and Lisa Streich (2022).

Musicologist Prof. Dr. Ludwig Finscher has called this award one of »the most important cultural prizes of the country... The thought-out choice of recipients has helped to open borders, to set quality standards, to raise awareness of the stylistic diversity found in contemporary composition, to honour established female composers and encourage young female composers, to make repairs for injustices that have been suffered, where that is at all possible.«