The award “Grifo Poliziano” 2015 was given to the memory of Maestro Hans Werner Henze. This distinction is reserved for personalities committed to Montepulciano's and it's territory's international reputation and who have realized projects promising growth and development. This year the award is an hommage to the founder of the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte. The director of the Hans Werner Henze Foundation, Dr. Michael Kerstan, participated in the ceremony on Sunday, September 20, 2015 at the Teatro Poliziano to receive the recognition.

The moving ceremony took place in the morning of October 4, 2013, assisted by members of the University, numerous friends and colleagues of the Maestro in the Aula de’ Battilani of the University of Florence, accompanied by some filmed interviews and guitarist Duccio Bianchi, who performed Henze’s Drei Tentos.

On April 14, 2011, Hans Werner Henze received the GEMA Music Authors' Award (Deutscher Musikautorenpreis) in Berlin for his life's work. (In German)

On 12 December 2007, German President Horst Köhler awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany to Hans Werner Henze.

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