Salonen's Violin Concerto Wins Grawemeyer Music Award

Los Angeles Philharmonic Conductor Laureate Esa-Pekka Salonen's Violin Concerto has won the 2012 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

The four-movement, half-hour concerto begins with a solitary violin, moves on to embrace a series of themes ranging from a quiet heartbeat to urban pop music, and ends on a chord unlike any other in the work, said award director Marc Satterwhite. "The piece is eclectic in its influences but has a distinct personality all its own," said Satterwhite.

Salonen, 53, principal conductor and artistic advisor for the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, was music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 17 years. He conducted the world premiere his Violin Concerto, commissioned by the LA Phil, at one of his final concerts with the orchestra in 2009.

Violinist Leila Josefowicz, known for championing new music, inspired Salonen's winning work and played its premiere. Josefowicz and the Finnish National Radio Symphony, led by Salonen, will record the piece for commercial release in May.

Salonen began conducting in 1979. He has written many orchestral works that are regularly performed and broadcast worldwide, including LA Variations, Foreign Bodies, Wing on Wing, Piano Concerto and Nyx.

His Violin Concerto was selected for the Grawemeyer Award from among 165 entries.

UofL presents four Grawemeyer Awards each year for outstanding works in music composition, world order, psychology and education. The university and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary jointly give a fifth award in religion. This year's awards are $100,000 each.

For more details on the awards or to download Salonen's photo, see www.grawemeyer.org