New Music Awards

Every year at New Music Conference we present the New Music Awards. These prestigious awards are for composers who work in the field of contemporary classical music. Within the New Music Awards we distinguish three different awards: the Buma Classical Award, the Classical Lifetime Achievement Award and the New Music Incentive.

Buma Classical Award

The Buma Classical Award is an oeuvre prize for a contemporary classical composer who has been active in the Dutch music sector for a long time, who knows how to connect newly composed ‘serious’ music with modern movements and brings his or her work to the attention of a large audience.

Winners Buma Classical Award

2021 – Toek Numan

2018 – Jacob de Haan

2023 – Mathilde Wantenaar

2020 – Aart Strootman

2017 – Johan de Meij

2022 – Martin Fondse

2019 – Vanessa Lann

2016 – Jacob ter Veldhuis

Classical Lifetime Achievement Award

The Classical Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to a composer who has reached exceptional and sustained achievement in the field of contemporary classical music. This award will be presented for the first time at New Music Conference 2024.

New Music Incentive

New Music Conference traditionally concludes every year with the New Composers Pitch, where young composers from various Dutch conservatories, present themselves and their work to a professional jury.

Winners New Music Incentive

2023 – Pedro Latas

2022 – Franki Dodwell

2021 – Alice Yeung