Toru Takemitsu Composition Award
Introduction The  is a  prestigious international music competition for young composers organized in Tokyo, Japan.
History The Toru Takemitsu Composition Award (annual competition of orchestral composition), which is an international composition award following Toru Takemitsu's principle "Prayer, Hope, Peace", continues since 1997 to encourage younger generations of composers who will shape the coming age by creating new musical works.The nucleus of this award is in its uniqueness that each year only one judge is responsible for its outcome. For the first 3-year cycle, Takemitsu himself chose the following three composers to head the competition: 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 by recommendation from the 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 selection by the Advisors Committee members and the previous judges were Akira Nishimura (2007), Steve Reich (2008) and Helmut Lachenmann (2009).Tristan Murail (2010), Salvatore Sciarrino (2011) and Toshio Hosokawa (2012) have been appointed as judges for the new 3-year cycle.The nominated pieces are performed at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.Fifty different composers have been nominated for this prize since its inception in 1997 (updated as of 2011 prize).The total sum of the cash award is 3,000,000 Yen each year.
Results The winners are:YearJudge1st prize2nd prize3rd prize4th prizeNotes 1997  ''not awarded''* "ZÉULA" by Massimo Botter* "Mabuni-no-Oka" by Hideki Kozakura ''PAGAN II'' by Marc Kenneth Yeats 1998  ''not awarded'' ''not awarded'' ''not awarded''  1999  "Uninterrupted Song" by Katsuji Maeda "DINAMORPHIA" by Ken Itō "Polychrome" by Toshiya Watanabe 2000  "L'été – L'oubli rouge" by Jun Nagao "AWAKENINGS" by Joe Cutler "Pulsating" by Sho Ueda 2001 * "AQUILO" by Arlene Elizabeth Sierra* "Gebilde-Gegenbild" by René Mense "5 pieces for orchestra" by Luke Bedford "Stein/Stern" by Ryuji Kubota 2002 * "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  "Allégories" by Joël Mérah "Calling Timbuktu" by Dai Fujikura* "Nights Bright Days" by Phillip Neil Martin* "Da/Fort" by Vittorio Zago 2004  "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  The competition was cancelled 2006 There was no competition 2007  "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  "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  "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  "...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  "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  "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  "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  "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 * "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 * "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  "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 * "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 * "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 "BORÉAS" by Xinyang Wang (China)"SIX PRAYERS" by David Roche (UK)"POÈMES DE MIDI" by Francisco Domínguez (Spain)"Saṃsāra" by Carmen Ho (UK) 2021 "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)
References
External links *  Official website