Tan Dun

The recipient of the newly created Beethoven Friendship Award, presented for the first time on December 17 in Bonn, is the Chinese-American composer and conductor Tan Dun (born 1957).

The award recognizes Tan Dun’s profound artistic engagement with Beethoven, which dates back to 1973 when, while working in a rice field in China’s Hunan province, he first heard the Bonn-born composer’s classical music over a village radio.

Tan Dun’s award-winning oeuvre contains numerous references to Beethoven. He recently achieved international acclaim with his « Choral Concerto: Nine, premiered in 2024 by the German National Youth Orchestra and the World Youth Choir. The text, instrumentation, and message of peace of this work are closely linked to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and the theme of wine.

“Tan Dun is one of the most successful composers of our time, and his Chinese influenced view of Beethoven is one of the most unusual and exciting contributions to the recent reception of Beethoven,” says violinist Daniel Hope, Beethoven-Haus president, explaining the choice of award winner. “We have been meeting musically for over 25 years – which makes his special voice in dialogue with Beethoven all the more moving to me.”

The prize does not only consider music, but also if a recipient is a wine connoisseur. Indeed, the prize is an initiative of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn and Wegeler Weingüter, with the support of 11 European wineries and the designer Michele De Lucchi.