Peter Sellars wins EBU-IMZ-Oustanding Achievement Award 2021

Peter Sellars has been awarded the EBU-IMZ Outstanding Achievement Award in 2021 in the course of the Golden Prague ITF Award Ceremony on 25 Sept.

„We are all trying to illuminate the television screens in people’s homes with unusual beauty, rare insight, secret wisdom, and the instructions to hidden worlds, moral awakening, and shared aspirations, and open roads to imagination, pleasure, and purpose that we associate with poetry, with music, with the human, and the divine. I am grateful to step forward and join a long list of outstanding colleagues who have been tapped to receive this award. The work continues!“, says Peter Sellars on winning the award.

Nicolas Auboyneau, Chairman of the EBU Music + Dance Experts adds: “Peter Sellars’ humanity, sensibility and spirituality are so strong, that sharing his creations to the wider audience through films and TV comes naturally to him. We’re so proud to honour one of the great opera and film directors of our time, and I wish we, all of us, will continue to produce, distribute, and broadcast Peter’s future masterworks, and be inspired by his genius.”

Throughout his career, Sellars has gained international recognition for his groundbreaking and transformative interpretations of classics, his advocacy of 20th century and contemporary music, and collaborations with an extraordinary range of performing artists. His work illuminates the power of art as a means of moral expression and social action. Sellars has collaborated in the creation of many works with composer John Adams and guided the formation process of Kaija Saariaho’s productions, which have expanded the repertoire of modern opera.  As a firm believer in television as the only medium to share his visions worldwide, Peter Sellars is known for his untiring attempt to attract new audiences to classical music and contemporary work.

IMZ President Arild Erikstad explains the decision: “At the IMZ Congress in Toronto 1992, my first IMZ meeting ever, a highlight was without a doubt Peter’s lecture about directing opera. So inspiring, so provocative, so new and different from all that I had seen and heard before”, continuing: “I am deeply impressed by how Peter Sellars always manages to find new angles and reach a broad audience without compromising on quality and seriousness.”

The EBU-IMZ Outstanding Achievement award is a joint initiative of the IMZ International Music + Media Centre and the EBU European Broadcasting Union together with the ITF Golden Prague. The award recognises excellence in music + dance in the audiovisual industry. Established in 2017, the award has been presented to Brian Large, Bruno Monsaingeon, Anca-Monica Pandelea + Gabrielle Babin Gugenheim and Christopher Nupen.