Toru Takemitsu Composition Award


The Toru Takemitsu Composition Award is an international music competition for young composers organized in Tokyo, Japan.

History

The Toru Takemitsu Composition Award was established in 1997.
Each year, only one judge picks the winner of the award. For the first 3-year cycle, Takemitsu himself chose the judges: Henri Dutilleux, György Ligeti, and Luciano Berio. Then, after Takemitsu's death, the three successors, Louis Andriessen, Oliver Knussen and Joji Yuasa were nominated by the initial judges.
For the third 3-year cycle, George Benjamin, Magnus Lindberg and John Adams were nominated on the recommendation of the competition's advisors and preceding judges.
For the fourth 3-year cycle, the advisors and previous judges selected Akira Nishimura, Steve Reich and Helmut Lachenmann.
Tristan Murail, Salvatore Sciarrino and Toshio Hosokawa were appointed as judges for the new 2010-2012 cycle.
The nominated pieces are performed at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.
As of 2011, fifty different composers had been nominated for this prize since its inception in 1997.
The total sum of the cash award is 3,000,000 Yen each year.

Results

The winners are:
YearJudge1st prize2nd prize3rd prize4th prizeNotes
1997not awarded
  • "ZÉULA" by Massimo Botter
  • "Mabuni-no-Oka" by Hideki Kozakura
PAGAN II by Marc Kenneth Yeats-
1998not awardednot awardednot awarded-
1999"Uninterrupted Song" by Katsuji Maeda"DINAMORPHIA" by Ken Itō"Polychrome" by Toshiya Watanabe-
2000"L'été – L'oubli rouge" by Jun Nagao"AWAKENINGS" by Joe Cutler"Pulsating" by Sho Ueda-
2001
  • "AQUILO" by Arlene Elizabeth Sierra
  • "Gebilde-Gegenbild" by René Mense
  • "5 pieces for orchestra" by Luke Bedford"Stein/Stern" by Ryuji Kubota-
    2002
  • "Canticum Tremulum" by Royuki Yamamoto
  • "Tenunan II" by Tazul Tajuddin
  • "FEEDBACK" by Panayiotis Kokoras
  • "Scene for Orchestra" by Theodor Pauss
  • "Tzolkin" by -
    2003"Allégories" by Joël Mérah"Calling Timbuktu" by Dai Fujikura
  • "Nights Bright Days" by Phillip Neil Martin
  • "Da/Fort" by Vittorio Zago
  • -
    2004"Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams" by Paul Stanhope
  • "Phenomenon" by Narong Prangcharoen
  • "Focal Distance II" by Sho Ueda
  • "YU-HYUN" by Soonjung Suh
  • "TALKING" by Marius Baranauskas
  • -
    2005The competition was cancelled-
    2006There was no competition-
    2007"Never Stand Behind Me" by Sho Ueda"CUBE" by Andrea Portera
  • "AQUA" by Man Fang
  • "Reminiscence of a dream" by YiMing Wu
  • "In Killing Fields Sweet Butterfly Ascend" by Jonas Valfridsson
  • -
    2008"What dou you think about the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?" by Yuichi Matsumoto"La Noche de Takemitsu" by Tomás Barreiro
  • "God in the Machine" by Damian Barbeler
  • "16_1/32_1" by Toru Nakatani
  • -
    2009"Hexagonal Pulsar" by Kenji Sakai
  • "Creatura Temporale" by Raffaele Grimaldi
  • "ZAI" by Kazutomo Yamamoto
  • "Cronica Fisiologica Universal" by Lucas Fagin
  • "A Whirl of Endless Repetition - To the Chaotic Ocean" by Masato Kimura
  • -
    2010"...Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion" by Roberto Toscano
  • "Aquarius" by Andrej Slezak
  • "Infinito Nero e Lontano la Luce" by Ken Namba
  • "Deux Presages" by Chikako Yamanaka -
    2011"Flux et reflux" by Florent Motsch-Etienne "Subliminal" by Bernd Richard Deutsch
  • "Parts II" by Jan Erik Mikalsen
  • -
    2012"Mano d'erba, per orchestra" by Federico Gardella "Une Œuvre pour l'Echo des Rêves, pour orchestra" by Ioannis Angelakis
    -
    2013"SIGHS – hommage à Fryderyk Chopin" by Marcin Stańczyk "The Lark in the Snow" by Sumio Kobayashi
  • "Zwei Landschaftsbilder" by Huan Liu
  • "'CLOSE' to You to 'OPEN'" by Nana Kamiyama
  • -
    2014"THE NORTHERN CAMELLIA – GRADATION OF SOUNDING AMITY No. 2" by Kei Daigo "Until the Sea Above Us Is Closed Again" Giovanni Dario Manzini
  • "BLACK BOXES für drei Orchestergruppen" by Timo Ruttkamp
  • "AWAKENING / SERENITY" by Siraseth Pantura-umporn
  • -
    2015
  • "Reachings for orchestra" by Sebastian Hilli
  • " for orchestra" by Yiğit Kolat
  • "cuadro de presencia for orchestra" by Fabià Santcovsky
  • "loop-fantasy for orchestra" by Thomas Wally
  • not awarded-
    2016
  • "ARCHETYPE" by Michael Seltenreich
  • "Let's speak in Wondrous Words! for orchestra" by Hirofumi Mogi
  • "triple sensibilities for orchestra" by Myunghoon Park
  • "Nacres for Orchestra" by Alice Nakamura
  • not awarded-
    2017"Paysages entrelacés pour orchestre" by Naoki Sakata
  • "at the still point for orchestra" by Zihua Tan
  • "NOWHERE for orchestra" by Annachiara Gedda
  • "Ich habe nie Menschenfleisch gegessen for orchestra" by Stefan Beyer
  • not awarded-
    2018
  • "Quanta" by Barnaby Martin
  • "STARING WEI JIE TO DEATH" by Paulo Brito  
  • "Quantum Vacuum" by Lukas Hövelmann-Köper
  • "SLEEPING IN THE WIND" by Bo Li
  • not awarded-
    2019
  • "Resonanz vom Horizont" by Shiqi Geng
  • "Entelequias" by Pablo Rubino Lindner
  • "Im Bauch des Fisches drei Tage und drei Nächte " by Siqi Liu
    "At The End Of Snow Line" by Zhuosheng Jin
    -
    2020
    "BORÉAS" by Xinyang Wang

    "SIX PRAYERS" by David Roche

    "POÈMES DE MIDI" by Francisco Domínguez

    "Saṃsāra" by Carmen Ho
    -
    2021
    "Moonlight Hidden in the Clouds" by Kohsuke Negishi

    "BREAKING A MIRROR" by Giorgio Francesco Dalla Villa

    • "TEHOM" by Jakob Gruchmann
    • "The echo of shadows, hallucination..." by Minchang Kang
    -