The Estonian composer Arvo Pärt has been awarded the Polar Music Prize 2023 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Music has announced that the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt has been awarded the Polar Music Prize 2023. The Polar was established in 1989 by the late Stig “Stikkan” Anderson, one of the great professionals in the history of Swedish popular music, as publisher, lyricist and manager of ABBA, and is endowed with one million Swedish kronor (about 88,700 euros at the current exchange rate). The award ceremony will take place on Tuesday 23 May at the Vinterträdgården in the Grand Hôtel in Stockholm and will be broadcast live on local TV4 at 20:00.
The jury said in the announcement of the award that Arvo Pärt “has compared his music to white light. It is in the encounter with the prism of the listener’s soul that all colours become visible. Anyone who has listened to his laconic, pared-down compositions will understand this perfectly”. The 2023 prize has also been awarded to Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo and record producer and impresario Chris Blackwell. In previous years, composers such as Pierre Boulez, Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sofiya Gubaidúlina, György Liget, Steve Reich, Kaija Saariaho and the Kronos Quartet, among many others, have received the award.