Hannah Rice Receives 2024 Hermitage Prize in Composition at Aspen Music Festival and School

The Hermitage Artist Retreat and the Aspen Music Festival and School have announced that Hannah Rice, a composition student at AMFS, has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Hermitage Prize in Composition. Rice is the eleventh recipient of this annual award, which includes a residency at the Hermitage, along with a $1,000 cash stipend. Rice was selected by a jury that includes multiple Grammy Award winner Robert Spano, Music Director of the AMFS, Artistic Director Laureate the Atlanta Symphony, and a past member of the Hermitage Curatorial Council; award-winning composer and celebrated arts administrator Alan Fletcher, AMFS President and CEO; and the composition faculty of the AMFS, including Grammy Award-winning Hermitage Fellow Christopher Theofanidis.

Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg presented the award to Rice at the Aspen Music Festival’s Klein Tent, alongside Spano, Fletcher, Theofanidis, and award-winning composer and Hermitage Fellow Nico Muhly. This unique initiative, launched in 2013, reflects an invaluable partnership between AMFS and the Hermitage, designed to champion new and original works and to recognize exceptional talent in the field of contemporary classical music. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of this award last year, the Hermitage and AMFS produced a retrospective video featuring exclusive interviews with past winners, distinguished AMFS faculty members, and renowned thought leaders in music, which can be seen here (full URL link below). With established composers like Spano, Fletcher, Theofanidis, Muhly and more having experienced memorable Hermitage Fellowships, the Hermitage Prize in Composition was created to offer the same experience to young, talented composers just beginning their professional careers.

 “We are thrilled to recognize Hannah Rice as the winner of the eleventh Hermitage Prize. She is a brilliant young composer and vocalist, and a welcome addition to the Hermitage family,” noted Sandberg. “We were delighted that the weekend’s festivities could be celebrated alongside fellow Hermitage alumni including Robert Spano, Alan Fletcher, Nico Muhly, and Christopher Theofanidis.” Sandberg adds that the Hermitage Prize at AMFS is the only student residency awarded each year; all other Hermitage Fellows are accomplished working professionals and leaders in their field, selected by the Hermitage’s National Curatorial Council. “This provides the recipient of the annual Hermitage Prize in Composition the opportunity to share this unmatched Hermitage experience with leading artists from all around the world.”

This year’s 75th Anniversary season of the Aspen Music Festival featured works and performances from Hermitage alumni including Alan Fletcher, Allison Loggins-Hull, Wang Lu, Missy Mazzoli, Jessie Montgomery, Nico Muhly, Robert Spano, Conrad Tao, and ChristopherTheofanidis.

Hermitage Fellows have included 17 Pulitzer Prize winners, multiple Grammy, Oscar, Emmy, and Tony winners, Poets Laureate, MacArthur 'Genius' Fellows, and more. Hermitage Fellows regularly describe their time at the Hermitage as "magical," "transformative," and "life-changing."

"I am so honored and humbled to have received this year's Hermitage Prize in Composition,” added Rice after learning the news of her recognition. “I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to all those involved with the selection process and the Hermitage Artist Retreat. I feel so privileged and thrilled to get to work on my craft alongside so many outstanding creative thinkers. As artists, it is so rare to have this kind of time and space available to us to live in a 'sound world' and discover what our musical souls are yearning to say, and I feel incredibly lucky and excited to have been gifted this time at the Hermitage."