“Acceptance Speech” Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2023 in Music and Opera

Acceptance speech by Thomas Adès, winner of the 2023 Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Music and Opera, honored for the extraordinary international reach of his work and his ability to connect with diverse audiences through an innovative musical language. His career as a composer, pianist and conductor spans symphonic and chamber music, ballet and opera, with works that reinterpret the Western musical tradition and incorporate influences from different styles and periods.

Adès reflects on his personal relationship with composition, which he describes as a vital necessity and a way of discovering the power of music. He recalls the influence of great composers and artists, as well as his first trip to Bilbao and the importance of Spanish culture in his career. He particularly highlights the Surrealism of Salvador Dalí and the cinema of Luis Buñuel, whose film The Exterminating Angel

Acceptance speech by Thomas Adès, winner of the 2023 Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Music and Opera, honored for the extraordinary international reach of his work and his ability to connect with diverse audiences through an innovative musical language. His career as a composer, pianist and conductor spans symphonic and chamber music, ballet and opera, with works that reinterpret the Western musical tradition and incorporate influences from different styles and periods.

Adès reflects on his personal relationship with composition, which he describes as a vital necessity and a way of discovering the power of music. He recalls the influence of great composers and artists, as well as his first trip to Bilbao and the importance of Spanish culture in his career. He particularly highlights the Surrealism of Salvador Dalí and the cinema of Luis Buñuel, whose film The Exterminating Angel inspired his third opera. He also advocates creative freedom and the search for a musical language of his own, free from aesthetic constraints.