Special Prize

20th century composers

Offered by the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot – Comité Albert Roussel

The candidates will be free to choose a piece among the entire works of the composer.

ALBERT ROUSSEL, FRENCH COMPOSER ( 1869-1937)

Born into a family of industrialists, he entered the Ecole Navale in 1887 after schooling in Tourcoing and then Paris, and became a ship’s ensign. In 1892 he composed his first work, Ave Maria for strings and organ, and the following year decided to devote himself entirely to music. He studied harmony, piano, organ, counterpoint and fugue with Julien Koszul and Eugène Grigout. He completed his studies at the Schola Cantorum, studying orchestration with Vincent d’Indy among others. He taught counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum, where his pupils included Satie, Varese and Le Flem. Discharged from the navy in 1902 (from which he had resigned in 1894), he travelled to India and Cambodia, which inspired his Evocations (1910-1911). It was the ballet Festin de l’Araignée (1912-1913) that remains one of his most famous works.

Laureates :

1998 – Andrey Kasparov (Armenia)
2000 – Saori Mizumura (Japan)
2002 – Hue Am Park (South Korea)
2004 – Ya-Ou Xie (China)
2006 – Spyros Thomas (Greece)
2008 – Franco Venturini (Italy)
2010 – Yejin Gil (South Korea)
2012 – Prize not awarded
2014 – Matthieu Stefanelli (France)
2016 – Marianna Abrahamyan (Armenia)
2018 – Maroussia Gentet (France)
2020 – Prize not awarded
2022 – Haniel Anugerah (Indonesia)
2024 – Yijia Chen (China)

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