The International Heinrich Schütz Prize will be awarded this year to Christina Siegfried. The music festival of the same name is thus honoring its long-serving artistic director for her contributions to the dissemination and promotion of the musical legacy of the composer Heinrich Schütz (1585-1627), as the organizers announced on Friday.

Christina Siegfried

Siegfried, a musicologist with a doctorate from Thuringia, served as managing director of the Association for Central German Baroque Music in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia, based in Magdeburg, from 2009 to 2025, and as artistic and managing director of the Heinrich Schütz Music Festival. The highlight of her tenure was the "Schütz22" anniversary year commemorating the 350th anniversary of the composer's death.

The non-monetary prize, a silver medal designed by sculptor Anna Franziska Schwarzbach, will be awarded on October 7th as part of the Heinrich Schütz Music Festival in Dresden. The laudatory speech will be given by gambist Hille Perl.

For more than 20 years, the Heinrich Schütz Music Festival has illuminated the work of the German composer at his original places of activity in Weißenfels, Zeitz, Bad Köstritz, Gera, and Dresden. This year's edition runs from October 2nd to 11th and is themed "Tracing the Past: Impetus and New Beginnings.".

Since 2018, the festival has awarded the Heinrich Schütz Prize annually for outstanding achievements in promoting and disseminating the music of the composer and his era. Previous recipients include Hans-Christoph Rademann, Sir Roger Norrington, the publishers Bärenreiter (Kassel) and Carus (Stuttgart), and, last year, the International Heinrich Schütz Society.

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