Bernhard Gander has been awarded the BMKÖS Outstanding Artist Award for Music. The Federal Ministry for Art, Culture, Public Service and Sport (BMKÖS) honours outstanding artistic achievements through its Outstanding Artist Award once a year in the fields of visual arts, performing arts, film, cultural initiatives, artistic photography, literature, fashion, music and media art.
Born in 1969 in Lienz, Bernhard Gander studied piano, composition and conducting at the Tyrolean State Conservatory and then composition with Beat Furrer in Graz. He also completed studies in electroacoustic music at Studio UPIC in Paris and at the Swiss Center for Computer Music in Zurich. Gander was the recipient of various awards and scholarships, including the City of Vienna Music Promotion Prize for Composition 2004, the Erste Bank Composition Prize 2005, as well as the Austrian State Scholarship for Composition 2005, 2008 and 2018, the Ernst Krenek Prize 2012 for melting pot and the Hilde Zach
Composition Scholarship 2017. Numerous commissioned compositions for Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Wiener Konzerthaus, Steirischer Herbst, ORF, Klangspuren, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wiener Festwochen, Musica Strassbourg, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Biennale München, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, among others.
The Outstanding Artist Awards are endowed with EUR 10,000 and are given annually by the Federal Ministry for Art, Culture, Public Service and Sport to artists of the younger and middle generation for outstanding achievements. Eligible artists can already demonstrate a significant oeuvre with works of artistic interregional importance.
Further information in German: www.ots.at