Biggest composer award goes to… Australian
OrchestrasThe 2026 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition has been awarded to the Australian Liza Lim for her work “A Sutured World.” The piece was premiered in October 2024 by cellist Nicolas Altstaedt and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra within Munich’s Musica Viva series.
Lim. 59, is Chair of Australian Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Her work, we read, ‘reflects her interests in Chinese culture and the aesthetics of Aboriginal art and shows the influence of non-Western music performance practice.’
She is the second Aussie to win the $100,000 Grawemeyer, after Brett Dean in 2009.
What kind of music writes Mrs Lim?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXMpQoFRPL8&list=RDlXMpQoFRPL8&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSj11zDCqyA&list=RDJSj11zDCqyA&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzTKiz9WtT8&list=RDJzTKiz9WtT8&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0VU3-rmqXk&list=RDq0VU3-rmqXk&start_radio=1
The usual, conventional type of ‘music’ that merely consists of gestures and sound effects, all clothed in ‘meaning’ as manuals for listening, because otherwise it says nothing. Why would a club like the Grawemeyers fall for it? a) woman; b) aboriginals; c) social concerns; d) no musical expertise necessary. So, amateurs rewarding each other.
There are ‘composers’ who prefer honesty over marketing woke talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKBbBzsWfkk&list=RDNKBbBzsWfkk&start_radio=1
Mrs Lim could take that as an example.
Dear John , bit confused about woke. What is it and was Jesus woke. Please use you tube for example.
Eager to hear this work!
I thought this was an award for AMERICAN composers! They have a history of choosing the worst-possible people for their megaprize.
Is this parody? I just listened to a few of her pieces, and and I can’t tell if this is serious. Just sounds like noise to me.