Mortier Awards Announce 2025 Recipients

Conductor Hartmut Haenchen received the Lifetime Achievement Award, while the Next Generation Award went to director Frieda Lange

Founded in 2014, the Mortier Award and the Mortier Next Generation Award were established to honor the legacy of the artistic director and theater visionary Gerard Mortier. They are presented to individuals who, in the spirit of Mortier, strive to explore new avenues of artistic expression.

In 2025, the Mortier Lifetime Achievement Award was given to the conductor Hartmut Haenchen. The Mortier Next Generation Award (which carries a cash prize of €30,000) has been awarded to the director Frieda Lange. Both artists will be honored at a ceremony on September 21, 2025.

In 2025, the jury for the Lifetime Achievement Award comprised the board members of the Mortier Awards Association: Angela Denoke, Carl Grouwet, Karl Harb, Ulrike Schwab, Alexander Polzin, and Albrecht Thiemann (Chair). The jury for the Next Generation Award included Torsten Ehlert, Titus Engel, Krystian Lada, Isabel Mundry, Alexander Polzin, Carl Grouwet (Chair), and Ruhrtriennale Artistic Director Ivo Van Hove.

Previously the Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic and Chamber orchestras, and Music Director of Dutch National Opera, Haenchen works frequently with orchestras including Royal Danish Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre symphonique de la Monnaie, New Japan Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, among others.

His discography includes more than 130 recordings for labels such as Berlin Classics, Capriccio, EuroArts, OpusArte, Pentatone, Philips, Sony Classical, Vanguard, and ICA Classics.

"Making theater means breaking the routine of the everyday, questioning the acceptance of economic, political and military force as normal, alerting the community to questions of human existence that cannot be regulated by the law, and affirming that the world can be better than it is," Mortier said. "Making theater is thus a mission, almost a priestly calling, though without being religion made manifest. Theater is a religion of humanity."