European Composition Award
One of the special highlights of Young Euro Classic is the presentation of the European Composition Award. Presented by the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner, this was the 26th time that the best premiere or German premiere at the festival has been honoured.
The 2025 European Composition Award goes to Jay Capperauld
Jay Capperauld from Scotland was awarded the European Composition Award for the work “Galvanic Dances”, performed by The National Youth Orchestra of Scotland under the baton of Catherine Larsen-Maguire. The decision to confer the award was made by an audience jury. This season, the jury was chaired by Arnaud Arbet, composer and conductor. Cerstin Richter-Kotowski, Undersecretary for Culture in Berlin, presented the award.
The composer has his own musical language, which sounds very personal, tinged with black humour and a strong dramaturgy. The combination of instruments (solo accordion and orchestra) is original and felicitous. The orchestra is not relegated to the role of accompaniment; instead, accordion and orchestra merge, sounding like a crazy, infernal organ, which is absolutely appropriate to the theme of "Frankenstein".
These works were in competition for the European Composition Award 2025
Previous winners
Since the festival was founded, 37 works have been honoured with the European Composition Award.
In 2024, the work "the image of that which is invisible" by the Turkish composer Ege Gür received the European Composition Award.