José Antonio Abreu Wins 2020 Isang Yun Prize (Founder of El Sistema)

 

José Antonio Abreu (1939-2018) of Venezuela wins 2020 Isang Yun Prize with financial support from Arts Council Korea and cooperation with Tongyeong City and Tongyeong International Music Foundation,

 

José Antonio Abreu is the founder of El Sistema (official name : National Network of Youth and Children Orchestras of Venezuela) widely known for spreading hopes to people in need and innovative music education.

 

Furthermore, 2020 Creative City of Music Awards selected awardees for 5 parts including 1) Hans Christian Euler & Eurasia-Festival, 2) Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, 3) Luigi Piovano and Aldo Orvieto, 4) Semanas Musicales de Frutillar, 5) Traiect (Orchestra).

 

Founded in 2005, Isang Yun Peace Foundation has been granting awards such as International Isang Yun Music Award (2007, 2009) and International Isang Yun Composition Award (2011, 2013, 2019) since 2007 to musicians who inherited and developed the thoughts and music of Yun.

 

Chairman Gehryeun Shin said “2020 Isang Yun Award selected final awardees in September 25 with panel (Panel head : Florian Riem, Germany) composed of 7 noted musicians from each country. Total of 25 candidates were recommended from UNESCO Creative Cities and online meetings were held several times over the video conference platform, ZOOM, in consideration of the situation that the panel members cannot gather together due to COVID-19.”

 

The awardee of Isang Yun Award gets 30,000 dollars for prize money and UNESCO Creative City of Music Award grants 5,000 dollars per person with cooperation from Tongyeong City.

 

The award ceremony will be held in Dorasan Station, Paju-si, Korea, in October 11, 4:00 PM. Because foreigners cannot attend the ceremony due to COVID-19, the award winning speech will be replaced by video messages from the awardees.