The Reina Sofia Prize for Musical Composition, awarded each year by a jury of internationally renowned composers, aims to be a platform promoting the creation of new works for the orchestral repertoire.

It is most likely that, in reflecting about composers, our mind goes back to distant times, to a past where geniuses created and the public listened. Year after year, audiences fill opera houses and auditoriums to celebrate works that are already centuries old. But the truth is that music composition is more alive than ever; the beat of our culture can still be heard, and our responsibility is to make sure that it doesn’t go unnoticed. The works of composers enrich our present and preserve the legacy that we venerate in auditoriums and conservatories. The Foundation is aware that support networks promoting the work of composers, like those that were put in place in the past, are critical. Not only for composers to be recognized as they deserve and for their efforts to be meaningful, but also to create a platform that disseminates their music, helping it be widely known, performed and listened to.

The Reina Sofía Prize for Musical Composition is endowed with €100,000 to help ensure the sustainability of the profession of composition. From its 44th edition onwards, the Prize expands its recognition by introducing a Second Prize of €50,000 and a Third Prize of €25,000. These awards are made possible thanks to the commitment and support of Her Majesty Queen Sofía. Finally, the First Prize-winning work will receive its world premiere at the Teatro Monumental in Madrid, performed by the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Spain’s leading public symphony orchestra.

From the 40th anniversary of the Prize onwards, and with the aim of promoting its national visibility, the winning work of each edition has been included in the annual tour and meeting programs of the Spanish National Youth Orchestra (JONDE), the most important orchestra of its kind at the national level.

For several years, the winner of the Reina Sofía Prize for Musical Composition has been appointed composer of the Xarxa de Músiques a Catalunya, within the concert series of Joventuts Musicals de Catalunya. This appointment entailed the commission of two chamber music works for two different ensembles of the Xarxa de Músiques.