Nina Šenk

The Erste Bank Composition Award 2024 goes to Nina Šenk

The Erste Bank Composition Award 2024 goes to the Slovenian composer Nina Šenk. The world premiere of the prize-winning work will take place on 21 November 2024 at the Wien Modern Festival.

Nina Šenk is regarded as a key representative of Slovenia's up-and-coming international music scene. At the most important festivals worldwide and in collaboration with leading orchestras and ensembles, she expands the possibilities of sound spaces and at the same time scrutinises the traditional structures of sound formations. The award-winning composer plays with proportions and forms to create a variety of harmonic colours. In doing so, she invents subtle textures and draws on a precise knowledge of instrumentation and sound design. Klangforum Wien has an intensive collaboration with Nina Šenk, most recently as part of the Johann Joseph Fux Opera Composition Competition (2023) with the world premiere of her opera Canvas.

The award of the Erste Bank Composition Prize, which will be presented for the 35th time in 2024, is in recognition of her exceptional artistic achievements. The world premiere of the prize-winning work will take place as part of the Wien Modern festival on 21 November 2024 together with Klangforum Wien.

Jury Statement

"Nina Šenk, a representative of Slovenia's vibrant cultural scene and at the same time familiar with all the key positions in new music, is characterised by a high degree of virtuosity in her approach to form and musical architecture. In particular, her ability to think sound in space and to use it in an incredibly colourful way to achieve the greatest possible depth is impressive. The composition commission associated with the prize will open up a new space of inspiration for both the performing Klangforum Wien and the composer. The joint exploration of boundaries, the mutually stimulating playing power of Klangforum and the imagination, the musically conceivable, the compositional fantasy of Nina Šenk will come together here in a congenial way."

Statement by the Laureate

Nina Šenk on receiving the award: "Receiving the Erste Bank Composition Prize is an incredible honour that touches me deeply. This award is not only a recognition of my work, but also a confirmation of my personal artistic path over the last 20 years. The collaboration with Klangforum Wien for a new piece allows me to immerse myself in the depths of complex worlds of sound. The extraordinary musicality of the ensemble serves as a tremendous inspiration for me."

About Nina Šenk

Nina Šenk, born in 1982, studied composition at the Ljubljana Academy of Music with Pavel Mihelčič. This was followed by further studies with Lothar Voigtländer in Dresden and at the University of Music and Theatre Munich with Matthias Pintscher, where she successfully completed her master's degree in 2008. Her numerous awards include the European Prize for Best Composition at the Young Euro Classic Festival (Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, 2004), the Prešeren Prize, the highest honour awarded by the Slovenian state for outstanding artistic achievement, and most recently the Johann Joseph Fux Opera Composition Competition of the Province of Styria.

Her works are performed at major festivals (BBC Proms, Salzburg Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, NY Phil Biennial, Musica Viva Munich, Kasseler Musiktage, Ultraschall Berlin, Takefu Festival, Young Euro Classic, Warsaw Autumn, World Music Days, and others. ) and are played by leading orchestras and ensembles (Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Scharoun Ensemble, Ensemble Mosaik, London Sinfonietta, Slowind Wind Quintet, Ensemble Aleph, etc.)

Nina Šenk has been a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts since June 2019.