Nominations for the 2022 Nordic Council Music Prize

This year’s nominees represent a wide range of genres from world music and opera, to electronic music and ethnomusic. There is a keen emphasis on the voice, with works composed for choir, vocal ensembles, soloists and opera, addressing themes such as diversity, the future of humanity, happiness, and melancholy. The works range from traditional to experimental music, but also experimenting with traditional music.

Here are the nominees:

The works have been nominated by the members of the adjudicating committee for the Nordic Council Music Prize.

The winner of the 2022 Nordic Council Music Prize will be announced together with the winners of the other Nordic Council prizes on 1 November in Helsinki in conjunction with the Session of the Nordic Council. The winner will receive the Nordlys statuette and DKK 300,000.

The Nordic Council Music Prize was first awarded in 1965 and recognises the creation and performance of music of a high artistic standard. The prize is awarded on alternate years to a work by a living composer in one year, and an individual performer or group the next. This year the music prize will go to a work by a composer.

The Nordic Council awards five prizes each year – for literature, film, music, the environment, and children’s and young people’s literature. The purpose of the Nordic Council prizes is to draw attention to outstanding artistic and environmental contributions, as well as to raise interest in the Nordic cultural community and Nordic co-operation on the environment.