Tuesday 9 June 2015: Emmylou Harris, 13-time Grammy winner, and Dame Evelyn Glennie, the virtuoso percussionist, were today honoured as this year’s Laureates of the Polar Music Prize, the world’s most prestigious music accolade.  The Laureates were presented with their awards by His Majesty King Carl XVI of Sweden at Stockholm’s Concert Hall.

 

 

Dame Evelyn Glennie said: “I never imagined I’d receive an award as important and symbolic as the Polar Music Prize.  It’s an institution that brings together people of all kinds, whatever their culture, age or beliefs, in a celebration of music’s power and diversity. I want to thank tonight’s superb organisers, the Swedish people for their hospitality and of course the prize committee for awarding me this prize.”

 

Dame Evelyn, the world’s first full-time classical percussionist, was accompanied at the ceremony by her mother and percussion teacher from her school in Scotland – their first meeting in over 25 years.

 

Emmylou Harris, internationally renowned as a singer songwriter for over four decades, was also honoured at the ceremony as one of the 2015 Laureates. During a filmed interview show at the ceremony, Emmylou Harris, who's worked with many of the music greats, mentioned that she's waiting for a call from Leonard Cohen and…"Now he might know about it, if he sees this”.

 

 

President Barak Obama sent a special message about the Prize. Read out by American Ambassador to Sweden, Mr. Mark Brzezinski, President Barak Obama said: “With ingenuity and vision, artists create pieces that carry forward the belief that no matter where we are from or what language we speak, we can open our minds to similar ideas – reminding us that one note can touch us all”. To view the message click here.

 

Bruce Springsteen (a Polar Music Prize Laureate in 1997) and Patti Scialfa, friends of Emmylou Harris, also sent their message of congratulations: “Congratulations on the Polar Music Prize - well deserved. And thank you for gracing our songs with your voice over the years. You are our American treasure. We love you”. To view Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa’s message click here.

 

Marie Ledin, Managing Director of the Polar Music Prize, said:  “In Evelyn Glennie and Emmylou Harris, the Foundation has chosen two exceptional Laureates for this year’s Polar Music Prizes:  both represent the spirit of the Award that my father envisaged when he founded the Prize 26 years ago.  We are delighted to honour Evelyn Glennie and Emmylou Harris and pay tribute to their exceptional music careers.”

 

Previous Laureates include last year’s Peter Sellars and Chuck Berry and Sir Paul McCartney, Dizzy Gillespie, Sir Elton John, Kronos Quartet, Ravi Shankar, Renee Fleming, Bob Dylan, Yossou N’Dour, Patti Smith, Pink Floyd, Mstislav Rostropovich, Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Led Zepplin, Bjork and Ennio Morricone. The Laureates each receive a cash prize of one million Swedish Krona, as well as the Award, designed by leading Scandinavian jeweler Efva Attling.

 

The Polar Music Prize, the equivalent for music of the Nobel Prizes, was founded by Stig “Stikkan” Anderson, 26 years ago.  Anderson, who was the publisher, lyricist and manager of ABBA, named the prize after his legendary record label Polar Music and created it to ‘break down musical boundaries by bringing together people from all different worlds of music.’

 

The Polar Music Prize cermony is available worldwide on TV4play.se. The banquet will be broadcasted live on TV4play.se at 8 pm.

 

Twitter: @Polarmusicprize

Instagram: @polarmusicprize.org

#polarmusicprize

 

Evelyn Glennie citation: The Polar Music Prize 2015 is awarded to percussionist Evelyn Glennie from Aberdeen, Scotland. Evelyn Glennie, who has been deaf since the age of twelve, has a mission to teach the world to listen. She has widened our understanding of what music is and shown us that listening is only partly to do with our ears. Everyone, whatever their physical circumstances, can perceive and perform music, can feel and convey good vibrations. We all have our own, individual tone. In her home country of the United Kingdom, she has changed the criteria for acceptance by music schools, has been honoured by the Queen for her efforts and had a key role in the opening of the Olympic Games in London in 2012. As a musician, she is one of very few who have successfully made a career as a solo percussionist. She has played with the world's foremost orchestras, conductors and artists and has released more than 30 solo albums. Evelyn Glennie shows us that the body is a resonance chamber and that we live in a universe of sound. Read the citation for Evelyn Glennie and learn about her music here.

 

Emmylou Harris citation: The Polar Music Prize 2015 is awarded to the artist Emmylou Harris from Birmingham, Alabama. No one in the history of popular music has harmonised like Emmylou Harris. For five decades she has embellished other artists' recordings by adding vocal parts that did not exist in the melodies. But it is as an artist in her own right that she has made the greatest contribution. The music of Emmylou Harris contains the history and topography of the entire American continent. Her voice follows the contours of the American landscape, from the highest peaks to the endless prairie. Weather, soil and colour, it can all be perceived in her music. As she sings in one of the best of her own compositions, she is a red dirt girl from a red dirt town. Emmylou Harris has also used her position as a musician to work for feminism, animal rights and the care of people affected by war. Emmylou Harris makes the world bigger and smaller, more valuable and more beautiful.
Read the citation for Emmylou Harris and learn all about her music here.