Cremona Musica Awards Announces 2024 Winners

Among the winners include pianist Marc-André Hamelin and Cremona’s Stauffer Academy

The cultural committee of Cremona Musica International Exhibitions and Festival has announced the winners of the Cremona Musica Awards, which was established in 2014 to recognize outstanding individuals and institutions for their contributions to their respective fields. 

The winners include Paolo Fazioli, who will receive the “A Life for the Piano” prize, while Giorgio Battistelli, known since 1981 for his work Experimentum Mundi and a Leone d’Oro alla carriera in 2022 in Venice, will be given the award for Composition. 

In the “Communication” category, Giuseppe Tornatore won with his docufilm “Ennio,” dedicated to Ennio Morricone. The laurel for “Best Project” will go to the Stauffer Academy, a preeminent teaching institution in Cremona. 

The awards in the “Winds Performance” category will go to the Irish flute virtuoso Sir James Galway, and in the “Bellows Instruments” category, the award will go to Riccardo Tesi, an internationally renowned organist.

The “Piano Performance” category award will be presented to the Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin, who will also perform a recital for the occasion at Teatro Ponchielli. 

Another prize was given to the “Parole liberate” (Free Words) project — where texts written by prisoners have become songs thanks to the contribution of Italian and foreign artists. This prize will be presented to Paolo Bedini, the owner of the Baracca Burattini record company, which has released the project’s CDs.

The award ceremony will be held in the Violin Museum Auditorium on September 28. The full program is available here.

Past winners of the award have included Alfred Brendel, Ivry Gitlis, Shlomo Mintz, and Maxim Vengerov.