Hindemith Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
“Samy Moussa has a special understanding of how to combine tradition und innovation to form an individual style. His music, notable for its formal beauty and compositional strictness, captures the spirit of our times”, says Dr. Christian Kuhnt, Director of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.
The award presentation ceremony will take place on 17 July 2017 at 7:00 PM at the NordArt in Rendsburg-Büdelsdorf. Works by Samy Moussa and Paul Hindemith will be on the programme. Moussa will be honoured on this evening by Christoph Eschenbach.
The Hindemith Prize has been awarded during the course of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival since 1990. This prize is intended to promote outstanding contemporary composers, and is funded by the Hindemith Foundation (Blonay/Switzerland), four Hamburg foundations, namely the Rudolf and Erika Koch Foundation, the Walther and Käthe Busche Foundation, the Gerhard Trede Foundation and the Franz Wirth Memorial Foundation, as well as the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the Province of Schleswig-Holstein. At the same time, the award reminds us of the music pedagogical activities of Paul Hindemith, who wrote the “Plöner Musiktag” in 1932 in response to a commission from the State Educational Facility in Plön.
The prize winners have so far included Olga Neuwirth (1999), Matthias Pintscher (2000), Thomas Adès (2001), Jörg Widmann (2002), Jörn Arnecke (2004), Lera Auerbach (2005), Dai Fujikura (2007), Bernd Richard Deutsch (2014) and David Philip Hefti (2015). In 2016 the prestigious prize was awarded to the British composer Anna Clyne, who lives in New York.
Source: Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival https://www.shmf.de/
Statement of Samy Moussa:
I have always loved the music of Paul Hindemith. Therefore, it is a great honor to receive the prize bearing his name. Conscious of music’s power, Hindemith follows a remarquable ethic of composition. My personal quest for a form of truth and meaning through Art was well-put by Hindemith:
« An dir ist's, hinter Eile, Lärm und Mannigfalt
das Ständige, die Stille, Sinn, Gestalt
zurückzufinden und neu zu bewahren. »
Paul Hindemith, Sonate für Althorn in Es und Klavier (1943), Das Posthorn (Zwiegespräch)
« Your task it is, amid confusion, rush, and noise
to grasp the lasting, calm, and meaningful,
and finding it anew, to hold and treasure it. »
I wish to thank the jury and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival for this award.