S. Korea’s Shin Donghoon wins Claudio Abbado Composition Prize

South Korean composer Shin Donghoon became the first Asian to win a prestigious composition award from the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, an orchestra spokesperson said Monday.

Shin became the sixth recipient and the first Asian winner of the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize, according to Elisabeth Hilsdorf, a spokeswoman for the German orchestra.

Named after Italy’s legendary conductor Claudio Abbado, who served as the chief conductor and artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic, the prize honors talented young composers.

With the prize, Shin has been commissioned to compose a cello concerto for the 50th anniversary of Karajan Academy that will be premiered in May 2022, Hilsdorf added. It will be played by Bruno Delepelaire, the principal cellist of the Berliner Philharmonic, and other musicians from the orchestra and the Karajan Academy conducted by Kirill Petrenko.

It will be the second time that the Karajan Academy will premier Shin’s work. His “Of Rats and Men” for chamber orchestra was commissioned and premiered by the Karajan Academy in 2019.

Shin, 37, studied composition at Seoul National University in Seoul and is currently working on his PhD at King’s College in London. He’s been mentored by renowned composers including Sir George Benjamin, Peter Eotvos and Unsuk Chin.

Shin won the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize in 2016 and Goethe Award by Goethe Institut in 2013.

His music has been performed by prominent orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra and Spanish National Orchestra.