Violinist and professor of Chamber Music Walter Levin is to receive the Frankfurt Music Prize 2003. In keeping with tradition, the Mayor of Frankfurt, Petra Roth, will present the prize in a ceremony in the Imperial Hall of Frankfurt City Hall (Römer) on the eve of the Musikmesse on 4 March 2003.
In distinction to many other artists in his field, Walter Levin stands for the communication of music - as an interpreter and teacher of music. Born in Berlin, he emigrated to Palestine in 1938. From 1946, he studied the violin under Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He founded the LaSalle Quartet and played as its first violinist. Concert tours with the LaSalle Quartet took him around the world. From 1953 to 1989, he taught at the College Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Chamber-music courses for young musicians
After more than 40 years, the LaSalle Quartet stopped giving concerts in May 1987. Since then, Walter Levin has been teaching young quartets in Europe and giving chamber-music courses at the music academies in Lübeck and Basel, at ProQuartet in Paris and at the international Mozarteum summer academy in Salzburg. Many of today's successful string quartets have studied under Walter Levin. He participates in radio and television programmes and has written numerous papers on aspects of interpretation. Walter Levin lives in Cincinnati and Basel.
Walter Levin on disc
Walter Levin has made numerous recordings: the complete works for string quartet by Schönberg, Berg and Webern; quartets by Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Wolf and Zemlinsky; quintets by Schubert and Schumann; many contemporary works composed especially for the LaSalle Quartet and dedicated to him by György Ligeti, Luigi Nono, Michael Gielen, Mauricio Kagel and Witold Lutoslawski.
Extraordinary achievements a prerequisite
The Frankfurt Music Prize is not only awarded to composers and interpreters of music but is also a distinction for personalities from music research and teaching. The prerequisites for the award of the Prize are extraordinary achievements in the specialist field concerned and the significance of the prize-winner's work for the national and international music sphere. Walter Levin meets these criteria for the prize in an outstanding way.
The Frankfurt Music Prize
Initiated and donated by the Federal Association of German Musical Instrument Manufacturers (Bundes-verband der Deutschen Musikinstrumenten-Hersteller e.V. - BDMH) and Messe Frankfurt GmbH, the Prize is presented annually on the occasion of the International Musikmesse and is worth EUR 15,000. It was founded in 1980 and is awarded in rotation to personalities in the fields of classic and popular music (jazz, rock and pop). The Frankfurt Music Prize 2004 will be awarded for achievements in the field of light music.
Winners of the Frankfurt Music Prize:
1982 Gidon Kremer (violinist)
1983 Edgar Krapp (organist)
1984 Alfred Brendel (pianist)
1985 Brigitte Fassbaender (opera singer)
1986 Albert Mangelsdorff (jazz trombonist)
1987 Carl Dahlhaus (musicologist)
1988 Heinz Holliger (oboist)
1989 Ludwig Güttler (trumpeter)
1990 Chick Corea (jazz pianist)
1991 Aribert Reiman (composer)
1992 Georg Solti (conductor)
1993 Harry Kupfer (director)
1994 Brian Eno (musician and sound artist)
1995 Tabea Zimmermann (violist)
1996 Wolfgang Niedecken (singer and songwriter)
1997 Prof. Hans Zender (composer and conductor)
1998 Peter Herbolzheimer (arranger, interpreter and composer)
1999 Prof. Michael Gielen (conductor and composer)
2000 Klaus Doldinger (saxophonist)
2001 Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (singer)
2002 -
2003 Walter Levin (violinist and professor of chamber music)
|
