The recipient of the Lepo Sumera Music Award 2020 is Galina Grigorjeva

Foto: Rene Jakobson

The recipient of the Lepo Sumera Music Award 2020 is Galina Grigorjeva

Today, on September 18 at 19:00 at a concert of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in the Estonia Concert Hall, the Lepo Sumera Music Award initiated by the Estonian Composers’ Union was unanimously bestowed upon Galina Grigorjeva.
Since 2002, the Estonian Composers’ Union has issued the Estonian Music Days Award to acknowledge Estonian composers. Aiming to expand the number of candidates, the Board of the Estonian Composers’ Union amended the statutes of the award. In 2016, in collaboration with the Society of Estonian Authors the Estonian Composers’ Union started issuing the Lepo Sumera Music Award. This year, on the 70th anniversary of Lepo Sumera’s birthday, the award was handed out for the fifth time. It is sponsored by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

“Galina Grigorjeva’s idiosyncratic style makes her an exceptional phenomenon in Estonian music. Intertwining the Slavic church song tradition with a modernist approach as well as Grigorjeva’s meticulously chosen means of expression and structural clarity do not only serve her musical ideas but also help her uniquely articulate a broader humanistic ethos,” jury member Kerri Kotta commented. “Therefore, despite the simultaneous usage of different approaches, Grigorjeva’s works are coherent both in terms of style and ideas. Moreover, the symbiosis of her jeweller’s touch and grandiosity that make her a sort of symphonic miniaturist allow us to view Grigorjeva as a successor and developer of an aesthetic in Estonian contemporary music that was also conveyed by Lepo Sumera’s oeuvre.”

The previous recipients of the Lepo Sumera Award are composers Jüri Reinvere (2019), Tõnu Kõrvits (2018), Helena Tulve (2017), Toivo Tulev (2016).

Earlier, the jury has included members such as conductors Neeme Järvi and Paavo Järvi, composer Erkki-Sven Tüür and pianist Kadri-Ann Sumera.

This year, the winner of the award was chosen by a three-member jury consisting of Märt-Matis Lill, Kerri Kotta and Tammo Sumera. The candidates were presented by the jury and the winner was selected by way of discussions.

The winner will receive a monetary award in the amount of 4,500 EUR.