Oliver Thurley awarded the 2018 Kranichstein Music Prize

Dr Oliver Thurley, composer and teaching fellow in the School of Music, has been awarded the 2018 Kranichstein Music Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes in new music.

Dr Oliver Thurley, composer and teaching fellow in the School of Music, has been awarded the 2018 Kranichstein Music Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes in new music, as part of the 2018 Darmstadt Summer Courses.

Thurley’s work is concerned with quietness and fragility, temporal disorientation and timbral instability, as well as computational/algorithmic procedure. His music impressed the jury through its “sophistication, consistency, and individuality”. In two compositions premiered during the festival—o horizon, gloa on the forest floor for harp, performed by Rahel Schweizer, and polynya, or ever less for electric guitar, given two performances, one by Nate Chivers and the other by Thilo Ruck—the jury suggested “compositional restraint becomes radical”.

Of his award, Oliver says: “I am honoured and delighted to receive this prize. I would like to make special thanks to the performers — Rahel, Nate, and Thilo — who brought my music to life, and to the other participants, tutors and organisers for all their support throughout the festival.”