After his two recent Grammy wins, Andris Nelsons has been honored with the 10th International Shostakovich Prize Gohrisch. Nelsons receives the prize, awarded by the Shostakovich Gohrisch Foundation, on June 23 this summer during the International Shostakovich Days in Gohrisch (Saxon Switzerland). “Andris Nelsons is an artist who transfers the human aspects of Shostakovich’s music to the present day,” says Shostakovich Tage’s artistic director, Tobias Niederschlag. “The relentless intensity of his music making is contagious and touching at the same time, and Andris Nelsons lets us see how up-to-date Shostakovich’s music is today.”

Describing himself as a “child of the late Soviet era”, Nelsons says of the Russian composer: “Shostakovich’s music is deeply rooted in my heart, its emotionality is timeless, and I hope it reaches the audience as well as me. I think it’s great what happened in honor of Shostakovich in Gohrisch, and I’m delighted to be able to accept the prize in this special place.”

Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra recently won the 2019 Grammy Award for best orchestral performance for “Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 11,” the latest release in its ongoing cycle of Shostakovich symphonies on Deutsche Grammophon. The highly acclaimed Under Stalin’s Shadow cycle is three for three on Grammy wins, with the two previous installments winning the same award in 2016 and 2017. More information about Nelsons’ Shostakovich cycle is available via his Recordings.

The 10th International Shostakovich Days Gohrisch will take place from June 20-23 in Gohrisch. For more information visit: schostakowitsch-tage.de.