# Toru Takemitsu Composition Award

The Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (武満徹作曲賞, Takemitsu Tōru sakkyoku-shō) is an international music competition for young composers organized in Tokyo, Japan.

## History

The Toru Takemitsu Composition Award was established in 1997.
Each year, only one judge picks the winner of the award. For the first 3-year cycle, Takemitsu himself chose the judges: Henri Dutilleux (1997), György Ligeti (1998), and Luciano Berio (1999). Then, after Takemitsu's death, the three successors, Louis Andriessen (2000 recommended by Berio), Oliver Knussen (2001 recommended by Dutilleux) and Joji Yuasa (2002 recommended by Ligeti) were nominated by the initial judges.
For the third 3-year cycle (2003–2005), George Benjamin (2003), Magnus Lindberg (2004) and John Adams (2005 • cancelled) were nominated on the recommendation of the competition's advisors (Hiroyuki Iwaki, Oliver Knussen, Kent Nagano, Kazushi Ohno, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Hiroshi Wakasugi) and preceding judges.
For the fourth 3-year cycle (2007–2009), the advisors and previous judges selected Akira Nishimura (2007), Steve Reich (2008) and Helmut Lachenmann (2009).
Tristan Murail (2010), Salvatore Sciarrino (2011) and Toshio Hosokawa (2012) were appointed as judges for the new 2010-2012 cycle.
The nominated pieces are performed at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.
As of 2011, fifty different composers had been nominated for this prize since its inception in 1997.
The total sum of the cash award is 3,000,000 Yen each year.

## Results

The winners are:
| Year | Judge | 1st prize | 2nd prize | 3rd prize | 4th prize |
| 1997 | Henri Dutilleux | not awarded | "ZÉULA" by Massimo Botter "Mabuni-no-Oka" by Hideki Kozakura | PAGAN II by Marc Kenneth Yeats | |
| 1998 | György Ligeti | not awarded | not awarded | not awarded | |
| 1999 | Luciano Berio | "Uninterrupted Song" by Katsuji Maeda | "DINAMORPHIA" by Ken Itō | "Polychrome" by Toshiya Watanabe | |
| 2000 | Louis Andriessen | "L'été – L'oubli rouge" by Jun Nagao | "AWAKENINGS" by Joe Cutler | "Pulsating" by Sho Ueda | |
| 2001 | Oliver Knussen | "AQUILO" by Arlene Elizabeth Sierra "Gebilde-Gegenbild" by René Mense | "5 pieces for orchestra" by Luke Bedford | "Stein/Stern" by Ryuji Kubota | |
| 2002 | Joji Yuasa | "Canticum Tremulum" by Royuki Yamamoto "Tenunan II" by Tazul Tajuddin | "FEEDBACK" by Panayiotis Kokoras "Scene for Orchestra" by Theodor Pauss | "Tzolkin" by Michael John Wiley | |
| 2003 | George Benjamin | "Allégories" by Joël Mérah | "Calling Timbuktu" by Dai Fujikura | "Nights Bright Days" by Phillip Neil Martin "Da/Fort" by Vittorio Zago | |
| 2004 | Magnus Lindberg | "Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams" by Paul Stanhope | "Phenomenon" by Narong Prangcharoen "Focal Distance II" by Sho Ueda | "YU-HYUN" by Soonjung Suh "TALKING" by Marius Baranauskas | |
| 2005 | John Adams | The competition was cancelled | | | |
| 2006 | | There was no competition | | | |
| 2007 | Akira Nishimura | "Never Stand Behind Me" by Sho Ueda | "CUBE" by Andrea Portera | "AQUA" by Man Fang "Reminiscence of a dream" by YiMing Wu "In Killing Fields Sweet Butterfly Ascend" by Jonas Valfridsson | |
| 2008 | Steve Reich | "What dou you think about the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?" by Yuichi Matsumoto | "La Noche de Takemitsu" by Tomás Barreiro | "God in the Machine" by Damian Barbeler "16_1/32_1" by Toru Nakatani | |
| 2009 | Helmut Lachenmann | "Hexagonal Pulsar" by Kenji Sakai | "Creatura Temporale" by Raffaele Grimaldi "ZAI" by Kazutomo Yamamoto | "Cronica Fisiologica Universal" by Lucas Fagin "A Whirl of Endless Repetition – To the Chaotic Ocean" by Masato Kimura | |
| 2010 | Tristan Murail | "...Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion" by Roberto Toscano (Brazil) | "Aquarius" by Andrej Slezak (Slovakia/Hungary) "Infinito Nero e Lontano la Luce" by Ken Namba (Japan) | "Deux Presages" by Chikako Yamanaka (Japan) | |
| 2011 | Salvatore Sciarrino | "Flux et reflux" by Florent Motsch-Etienne (France) | "Subliminal" by Bernd Richard Deutsch (Austria) | "Parts II" by Jan Erik Mikalsen (Norway) (4th prize: "NAMOK" by Heera Kim (Korea)) | |
| 2012 | Toshio Hosokawa | "Mano d'erba, per orchestra" by Federico Gardella (Italy) | "Une Œuvre pour l'Echo des Rêves (II), pour orchestra" by Ioannis Angelakis (Greece) | "I Do Hope to Sleep in the Silent Universe" by Masato Kimura (Japan) "WARAI" by Shiori Usui (Japan) | |
| 2013 | Harrison Birtwistle | "SIGHS – hommage à Fryderyk Chopin" by Marcin Stańczyk (Poland) | "The Lark in the Snow" by Sumio Kobayashi (Japan) | "Zwei Landschaftsbilder" by Huan Liu (China) "'CLOSE' to You to 'OPEN'" by Nana Kamiyama (Japan) | |
| 2014 | Peter Eötvös | "THE NORTHERN CAMELLIA – GRADATION OF SOUNDING AMITY No. 2" by Kei Daigo (Japan) | "Until the Sea Above Us Is Closed Again" Giovanni Dario Manzini (Italy) | "BLACK BOXES für drei Orchestergruppen" by Timo Ruttkamp (Germany) "AWAKENING / SERENITY" by Siraseth Pantura-umporn (Thailand) | |
| 2015 | Kaija Saariaho | "Reachings for orchestra" by Sebastian Hilli (Finland) "[difeʁãs] for orchestra" by Yiğit Kolat (Turkey/USA) | "cuadro de presencia for orchestra" by Fabià Santcovsky (Spain) "loop-fantasy for orchestra" by Thomas Wally (Austria) | not awarded | |
| 2016 | Toshi Ichiyanagi | "ARCHETYPE" by Michael Seltenreich (Israel) "Let's speak in Wondrous Words! for orchestra" by Hirofumi Mogi (Japan) | "triple sensibilities for orchestra" by Myunghoon Park (Korea) "Nacres for Orchestra" by Alice Nakamura (Japan) | not awarded | |
| 2017 | Heinz Holliger | "Paysages entrelacés pour orchestre" by Naoki Sakata (Japan) | "at the still point for orchestra" by Zihua Tan (Malaysia) "NOWHERE for orchestra" by Annachiara Gedda (Italy) "Ich habe nie Menschenfleisch gegessen for orchestra" by Stefan Beyer (Germany) | not awarded | |
| 2018 | Unsuk Chin | "Quanta" by Barnaby Martin (UK) "STARING WEI JIE TO DEATH" by Paulo Brito (Brazil/USA) | "Quantum Vacuum" by Lukas Hövelmann-Köper (Germany) "SLEEPING IN THE WIND" by Bo Li (China) | not awarded | |
| 2019 | Philippe Manoury | "Resonanz vom Horizont" by Shiqi Geng (China) "Entelequias" by Pablo Rubino Lindner (Argentina) | "Im Bauch des Fisches drei Tage und drei Nächte " by Siqi Liu (China) | "At The End Of Snow Line" by Zhuosheng Jin (China) | |
| 2020 | Thomas Adès | "BORÉAS" by Xinyang Wang (China) | "SIX PRAYERS" by David Roche (UK) | "POÈMES DE MIDI" by Francisco Domínguez (Spain) | "Saṃsāra" by Carmen Ho (UK) |
| 2021 | Pascal Dusapin | "Moonlight Hidden in the Clouds" by Kohsuke Negishi (Japan) | "BREAKING A MIRROR" by Giorgio Francesco Dalla Villa (Italy) | "TEHOM" by Jakob Gruchmann (Austria) "The echo of shadows, hallucination..." by Minchang Kang (Korea) | |