Praemium Imperiale to Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze

Composer of our Time

Prince Masahito of Hitachi awards the prize to HWH — *© Hans Werner Henze-Foundation*

On 26 October 2000, the annual award ceremony for the Praemium Imperiale, the Nobel Prize for the Arts, took place in Tokyo.

Since 1989, the Japan Art Association has been awarding an annual prize for the artistic life's work of a personality from the five fields of painting, sculpture, architecture, music and theatre/film, as well as a scholarship for up-and-coming artists,
the Praemium Imperiale (Takamatsu no miya denka kinen sekai bunka-sho, literally World Culture Prize in Memory of His Imperial Highness Prince Takamatsu).
The prize was established at the suggestion of the Japanese imperial family in memory of Prince Takamatsu and is considered a "Nobel Prize for the Arts".

In 2000, Prince Masahito of Hitachi awarded the Praemium Imperiale to Hans Werner Henze (music), Niki de Saint Phalle (sculpture), Richard Rodgers (architecture), Stephen Sondheim (film) and Ellsworth Kelly (painting) and the Ulster Youth Orchestra from Northern Ireland.