Grawemeyer Collection of Contemporary Music: About the Award

Music has the ability to inspire, to bring joy to those who hear it and those who create it. It can convey great emotion in just a few powerful notes. There is, perhaps, no greater expression of the human spirit. For this reason, the Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition honors those who bring beauty and inspiration into the world.

The University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition is offered as an international prize, given in recognition of outstanding achievement by a living composer in a large musical genre: choral, orchestral, chamber, electronic, song-style, dance, opera, musical theater, extended solo work, etc. The award amount is one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000). The competition is administered by the University of Louisville's Grawemeyer Music Award Committee, in consultation with a jury of three internationally recognized professionals. Each entry is sponsored by a professional musical organization or individual (performer or performing group, conductor, critic, publisher, or head of a professional music school of department). A composer may not submit his or her own work, and no more than one work of any composer may be submitted in one year.

This international prize is made possible through the generosity of native Louisvillian H. Charles Grawemeyer. Mr. Grawemeyer, a graduate of the University's Speed Scientific School, was the chairman of Reliance Universal, Inc., and the founder of Plastic Parts, Inc., both Louisville-area industrial companies. A life-long music lover, Grawemeyer established the prize to recognize outstanding current mastery in music composition and at the same time to encourage the development of talented composers everywhere--the potential future winners of the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

To learn more about the award, including information on the current and previous winners, please visit the Grawemeyer Award for Music composition website.