Nachtigall

Sigiswald Kuijken

Through his fearless and virtuosic exploration of period instruments and performance techniques, Sigiswald Kuijken has helped to revolutionise our understanding and appreciation of early music. His innovative approach to violin technique, dispensing with modern aids in favour of historical authenticity, has challenged and inspired performers worldwide, as have his pioneering work with his ensemble La Petite Bande and his teaching at renowned conservatories. Kuijken has influenced more than one generation of musicians. His artistic vision, which he shares with his equally talented brothers, has resulted in numerous benchmark recordings of chamber music and orchestral works from the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as of operas and sacred music from the same periods, impressively demonstrating the versatility and depth of his musical output. For the annual committee: Carsten Niemann

Nina Hagen

A life’s work as a tightrope walk. Nina Hagen began in the East, became successful in the West and moved on into the world of international entertainment. The wildly expressive, humorously irreverent vocal style of her early years set the standards for German pop culture. Her dazzling aesthetic and her social engagement caused discussions, and sometimes controversies. Nina Hagen is a famously contentious artist, but she is also much more. She can sing like a siren, like a punk, like a rock star, with operatic pathos, or with theatrical force. She connects pop worlds, and brings people together. Nina Hagen is active as an actress and a speaker, challenging opinions, edgy and personal, empathetic and direct. She is an artist and a work of art with every fibre of her being, and she is one of the most famous musicians in Germany. Nina Hagen represents un utterly opulent life’s work; a firework. For the annual committee: Ralf Dombrowski

Brigitte Fassbaender

Bloom, fullness, life, love, wit, depth, rigor, warmth, clarity, darkness, glow and shine, but also grace and eroticism, truth, openness, intelligence, unconditionality, humanity: there are many, sometimes even mutually exclusive terms with which one could describe the unmistakable voice of the century by mezzo-soprano and alto Brigitte Fassbaender – none truly fits. Fortunately for us, recordings exist, even if they do not replace the live experience. Fassbaender has recorded over 250 records, opera, and song, from Bach to Schönberg, from Gluck to Strauss (and Strauß) in the course of her stage career, which she began in the ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera at twenty-one and ended surprisingly but resolutely in 1995 because »a slow fading away« was out of the question for her: »I wanted to resign in top form«. With love, wit, rigor, openness, intelligence, etc. (see above), she built up a second, unprecedentedly successful career as director and opera director, a career which is far from over: Fassbaender is currently developing Wagner’s »Ring« for the Tiroler Festspiele Erl. For the annual committee: Eleonore Büning

Udo Lindenberg

Nikolaus Harnoncourt (posthum)

Leonard Cohen

Christian Gerhaher

Irène Schweizer

RIAS-Kammerchor

Murray Perahia

Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen