Russian-born composer Sergej Newski will receive the Berlin Art Prize for Music in 2014. It is awarded to honour artistic achievement and to promote creative work. The award ceremony takes place on March 18.

Hungarian composer, conductor, and educator Peter Eötvös will celebrate his 70th birthday on January 2nd. Ten years ago, on the occasion of Eötvös’s 60th birthday, we asked Claudio Abbado, György Kurtag, Helmut Lachenmann, and Karlheinz Stockhausen to comment. These were their statements.

On our blog, our contemporary composers present their favorite works from our catalogs. We start here with a text by Dai Fujikura about Peter Eötvös’ work Atlantis.

From our archives: Swedish composer and trombone player Ivo Nilsson writes about Peter Eötvös.

On January 21 the world premiere of Carlo Boccadoro’s Box of Paints will take place in Milan. The piece for flute and orchestra will be performed by Sentieri Selvaggi and conducted by Boccadoro himself as part of the 150th concert season of the Società del Quartetto, the commissioner of the work.

A recently rediscovered masterpiece among Giacinto Scelsi’s archives will soon have its world premiere. [Kamakala] was written in 1955-56 and will be played for the first time on January 26, 2014, in Berlin.

“Surely one of the strongest compositions to appear in the last couple of years”, declared music critic and book author Alex Ross. Additionally, the CD (which was released earlier this year on Wergo), was listed in The Sunday Times Best 100 Records of the Year as well as in The New Yorker's List of "Notable Classical Recordings of 2013".

On December 19, two chamber operas were premiered in Budapest. Both are based on Slawomir Mrozek’s absurd one-act OUT at S.E.A. The production is a true international sensation, not only because of its participants from Singapore, Austria, Georgia, Romania, Germany, and Hungary, but also because the opera will be performed in Milan, Paris, Brussels, and Riga during the 2014-2015 season.

It is well known that La traviata was not well received at its premiere in 1853 at the Teatro La Fenice. Verdi decided to present it to the Venetian public again the following year, and for the occasion he made some modifications in the score.

Dai Fujikura's international success story continues. In November, three works of his received their world premiere.