Jörg Widmann Wins Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Elise L. Stoeger Prize

We are thrilled to announce that Schott composer Jörg Widmann has been awarded The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Elise L. Stoeger Prize. The Stoeger Prize is a $25,000 cash award given every two years in recognition of significant contributions to the field of chamber music.

Already established as one of the leading young voices in contemporary music, Jörg Widmann's music is consistently heard in many of the world's most prestigious venues. The composer was recently honored with a dedicated concert series at London's Wigmore Hall from September, 2008 through June, 2009 which featured selections from his wide-ranging chamber music catalogue. The compositions were presented in five concerts alongside works by Schubert and Mozart, whose music has had a direct influence on the 35-year-old composer and clarinetist.

The recognition of Widmann's contribution to chamber music is owed in no small part to his five string quartets, which form the core of his oeuvre and are widely considered landmark compositions for the quartet genre. The five string quartets are intended as one complete cycle in which each individual work pursues a traditional movement form and specific performance techniques. The cycle of quartets began with String Quartet No. I composed in 1997 and the five works have been premiered by such leading quartets as the Arditti and Vogler Quartet. The most recent installment of the quartet cycle, Versuch über die Fuge, (Attempt at a Fugue) for quartet and soprano, was premiered by Juliane Banse and the Artemis Quartet in 2005.

Widmann is currently composing a flute concerto for The Cleveland Orchestra to be premiered in the Fall of 2010. He is the current Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellow with the orchestra. This season The Cleveland Orchestra features performances of three of the composer's seminal orchestral works Chor, Con Brio and Armonica. In addition, Widmann's music can be heard in upcoming performances worldwide by orchestras and ensembles including the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Bochumer Symphoniker and Klangforum Wien.

• Jörg Widmann - Profile
• Homepage of the Elise L. Stoeger Prize