Hans Thomalla Receives 2011 Composer's Prize

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Hans Thomalla, assistant professor of composition at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, has received a Composer’s Prize for 2011 from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. The award, which is valued at more than $50,000, was announced in Germany on Feb. 1 and includes a commission.

The annual Composer’s Prize recognizes important up-and-coming young composers of exceptional talent.

Thomalla is one of three internationally selected recipients of this year’s prize. The prize will be presented at a ceremony in Munich on May 24. At that time, the saxophone quartet XASAX will premiere a new work by the Northwestern composer.

The Siemens Foundation also awards the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, sometimes known as “the Nobel Prize of Music,” and distributes more than $3 million in prize money each year to projects fostering contemporary music.

A native of Germany, Thomalla also was awarded the 2004 Kranichsteiner Musikpreis and the 2005 Christoph Delz Prize. His works have been performed by major German ensembles, including the SWR-Radioinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, SR-Sinfonieorchester, Ensemble Modern, and Ensemble Recherche. His music has been performed at major festivals and his compositions can be heard on the Vergo label.

His opera “Fremd” will be premiered in July 2011 at the Stuttgart State Opera.

Thomalla joined the Bienen School faculty in 2007.

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