Nuno Costa wins the ISCM Young Composer Award 2015

On 2 October 2015, at the final concert on of the ISCM World Music Days in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the winner of the 2015 ISCM Young Composer Award (supported by Music on Main) was announced. It is the aim of the ISCM to promote exposure, research, and performance of contemporary music on an international scale, and to showcase diversity in musical creation, without prejudice to differences in musical expressions, styles, genres or media; nor regarding race, religion or politics. The annual ISCM Young Composers Award (YCA) is an important facet in these ongoing activities. At each ISCM World Music Days Festival an international jury, constituted from the ISCM membership, carefully considers all works performed during the festival written by composers age 35 or under, and selects a single composer to receive the ISCM Young Composers Award. The distinguished international jury for 2015 was comprised of Alejandro Guarello (Chile), Gudny Gudmundsdottir (Iceland), and Glenda Keam (New Zealand). Stephen Lias (USA) served as the jury coordinator.
 
The winner, who will be honored with a commission for a new work to be performed at a future ISCM festival, was NUNO COSTA (Portugal) for this work Pater Noster, performed on 30 September by the Slovenian Philharmonic Choir, conducted by Martina Batic. In reference to this piece, the jury released the following statement:

‘Pater noster’ balances effective contrasts with a strong directional line, maintaining intensity from beginning to end.  The clarity of the composer’s ideas, along with the internal logic and individual musical language, shows clear potential to produce a very strong new work for ISCM.
 
Through this award, ISCM is making a meaningful and lasting contribution to the depth and breadth of contemporary music repertoire, as well as providing support and encouragement to the most promising emerging composers of our time.