Helena Cánovas receives the “Carmen Mateu”.

The jury’s decision for the second edition of the Carmen Mateu European Prize for Young Artists in Opera and Dance was announced in May, and went to the Catalan composer Helena Cánovas Parés (Tona, 1994). The prize will be presented today to the German-based composer at an event taking place at MACBA, which will include the world premiere of amarga once again (for baritone and string quartet).

Cánovas Parés was chosen from among 39 candidates of fifteen different nationalities for her “capacity to generate an original compositional language, her union of text and music as well as her scenic and theatrical vision”, according to the jury, formed by the composer and winner of the National Prize Raquel García-Tomás; the Mexican composer and soprano Diana Syrse; the musical director of the Liceu, Josep Pons; the artistic director of the Real, Joan Matabosch, as well as Oriol Aguilà, vice-president of the jury and director of the Castillo de Perelada Festival.

The prize is endowed with 30,000 euros for the commissioning of a pocket opera, for between two and five solo voices and between three and seven instruments, to be premiered at the Festival Castillo de Perelada 2023, and subsequently at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Teatro Real, as co-producers of the commission.

The award was instituted by the Castillo de Perelada Foundation in memory of and in homage to Carmen Mateu, one of Spain’s leading patrons of the lyric and performing arts, founder in 1987, together with her husband, Arturo Suqué, of the Castillo de Perelada International Music Festival, which will include the world premiere of amarga once again (for baritone and string quartet.

© Photograph by Anna Tena downloaded from the composer’s website.