The Franz Schubert Association has created the Franz Schubert Award in order to promote the dissemination of the figure and legacy of the Austrian composer. The prize is awarded in two categories:
- Firstly, to a personality who has made a unique and profound contribution to the Schubertian repertoire over the course of an extensive career.
- Secondly, to a young talent in the field of the musical performance, with the aim of supporting their professional development. Their performances will be promoted through concerts at festivals endorse by the Association as part of the Schubertíada.
The Franz Schubert award is supported by the Banc Sabadell Foundation
The Franz Schubert Association has decided to distinguish the Spanish promoter and cultural manager Antonio Moral Rubio (1956) with the Premi Franz Schubert for his decisive and persistent impulse of a vast variety and amount of Schubert’s repertoire in Spain over 30 years of his carrier at the most prestigious festivals and series of our country.
Likewise, the Association has decided to grant the Franz Schubert Prize for a young performer to the Spanish pianist Victoria Guerrero (1989), for her profound insights, strong commitment and extraordinary abilities as a song accompanist.
Antonio Moral is one of the most influential, active and well known concert promoters in Spain. His persitence, passion, insight and charisma have been decisive to shape Spains musical landscape in the last 30 years. He has founded several cycles that have become a reference in the international musical circuit and he has been able not only to create but sustain this initiatives. The Ciclo de lied, the Liceo de Cámara, as the Scherzo piano series, that he founded many years ago, are benchmarks of Madrid’s musical life and have contributed to widen and diversify the musical offer and cultivated generation of music lovers.
His personal involvement and charisma have induced long term relationships with leading artists of our time. His increasing experience and dialogue with musicians have ensured diverse and innovative program ideas. His ambition has ensured long term projects and complete cycles of important repertoire that had never been present in Spanish musical life at this level of scope and with the highest quality standards.
In his carrier, Antonio Moral has always shown a special affinity for Franz Schubert’s music. His special interest in art song has facilitated the establishment of one of the most important and prestigious Lied series worldwide at Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid. Only in this series, he has presented an impressive series of Schubert’s main song cycles and over 1200 Schubert songs. Lied recitals have been a substantial part and have always found place in all the festivals and initiatives he has been involved in 30 years, including his newest projects at Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and at the newly created festival in Cáceres. He has also been persistent in presenting the chamber music of Schubert and has incentivated the inclusion of Schubert’s piano works in the hundreds of recitals he has organized.
The Premi Franz Schubert awarded to Antonio Moral receives explicit endorsement by multiple international artists which we state by the following.
- David Afkham
- Alfred Brendel
- Ammiel Bushakevitz
- Quartet Casals
- Cosmos Quartet
- Julius Drake
- Christian Gerhaher
- Matthias Goerne
- Daniel Heide
- Gerold Huber
- Christiane Karg
- Julia Kleiter
- Katharina Konradi
- Konstantin Krimmel
- Paul Lewis
- Malcolm Martineau
- Catriona Morison
- Anna-Lucia Richter
- Franz-Josef Selig
- András Schiff
- Andrè Schuen
The international jury has decided to grant the Franz Schubert Award to Brigitte Fassbaender and Fleur Barron
The members of the jury were Marc Busquets (artistic director of the Victoria de los Ángeles Foundation since 2017); Julius Drake (pianist and professor at the University of Graz, Austria); Mónica Lorenzo (artistic coordinator of the Spanish National Orchestra and Choir); Leticia Martín (head of production and assistant to the artistic production department at the Gran Teatre del Liceu); and Victor Medem (director of the Franz Schubert Association).
The international jury decided on May 22, 2021, to grant the Franz Schubert Award to Alfred Brendel and Samuel Hasselhorn.
The members of the jury were Jonathan Brown (violist, member of the Casals Quartet), Johannes Bultmann (General Director of SWR Classic), Antoni Colomer (journalist, lecturer, and author), Victor Medem (director of the Franz Schubert Association), and Elisabeth Reischl (artistic programmer at the Konzerthaus Wien).