The Heimo Erbse Prize is a development award worth €3,000 for musicians from the Salzburg greater area. It is awarded annually and supports artists in realising their musical projects.

The prize is endowed by Markus Melms, Christian Salić, Max Kickinger, FOMA GmbH, and a further donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

The prize money is to be used at the awarded artists’ discretion. It is intended to primarily support productions and artistic projects, for example in the areas of recording, video, or promotion.

Application

Applications can be submitted to Rockhouse Salzburg until the end of August. The documents may be designed freely and should include information about the project, audio samples, and a short concept for the planned use of the prize money.

Following a jury decision, the winners of the Heimo Erbse Prize will be announced by the end of the year.

* 27.02.1924, Rudolstadt – † 22.09.2005, Baden bei Wien

With large-scale works and prominent casts, Blacher student Heimo Erbse drew attention to himself at a young age before soon withdrawing almost completely from the outside world. Undeterred, he continued to devote himself primarily to the symphony as a genre later on as well.

A gunshot wound sustained on the Russian front prevented the instrumentalist career he had aimed for. After the Second World War, Erbse resumed his musical training and studied conducting (Hermann Abendroth) and opera direction (Ernst Kranz). In Austria, it was especially Gottfried von Einem, his fellow student under Blacher, who championed performances of Erbse’s works.

The decisive year in the composer’s career was 1959, when both his ballet Ruth (based on the Old Testament) at the Vienna State Opera and the opera Julietta at the Salzburg Festival received their premieres.

Stylistically, Erbse’s oeuvre shows the influence of his teacher Boris Blacher: transparent writing with an emphasis on linear development, pronounced rhythm, a distinctive ostinato technique, and free, strongly chromatic tonality. Virtuosic gestures recede in favour of sparse linear construction.