Anne-Sophie Mutter Named Recipient Of 2019 Praemium Imperiale

The Japan Art Association today announced the recipients of the 2019 Praemium Imperiale Awards:

Sculpture: Mona HATOUM (British/Palestine)
Music: Anne-Sophie MUTTER (Germany)
Painting: William KENTRIDGE (South Africa)
Theatre/Film: BANDO Tamasaburo (Japan)
Architecture: Tod WILLIAMS & Billie TSIEN (USA)

Each Laureate receives an honorarium of 15 million Yen (c. US$138,000). The awards will be presented by His Imperial Highness Prince Hitachi, Honorary Patron of the Japan Art Association and younger brother of the Emperor Emeritus of Japan, in a ceremony in Japan this October. In addition to the Praemium Imperiale Awards, the 5 million Yen (c. US$46,000) grant for Young Artists has been awarded to Démos, the musical education programme under Philharmonie de Paris that provides musical education to children between 7 to 12 in underserved localities or rural areas in France.

German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter has been an international figure in the world's major concert halls for more than 40 years, making her mark on the classical music scene as a soloist, mentor, and visionary. The four-time Grammy Award winner is equally committed to traditional works and the future of music, having given world premieres of 27 works by composers including Sebastian Currier, Henri Dutilleux, Sofia Gubaidulina, Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sir André Previn, Wolfgang Rihm, and John Williams. She also dedicates herself to supporting future generations of musicians through benefit projects and the world-renowned Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. On August 30, 2019, Mutter released her latest recording, All Across the Stars, featuring new adaptations of selections from John Williams' greatest film scores, prepared for her by Williams himself.

Since 1989, the Praemium Imperiale Awards have been given annually in the categories of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music and Theatre/Film to cover fields of achievement not represented by the Nobel Prizes. The Laureates are chosen from a list submitted by six International Advisors to the Japan Art Association.

While maintaining the Awards' original mandate to select candidates who have made a major international impact in their particular field, the International Advisors for the Awards and their committees have been looking beyond their national boundaries for ground-breaking artists to recommend to the Japan Art Association.