Hungarian conductor Ádám Fischer and musician Paul McCartney have won this year’s Wolf Prize for Music. Awarded by the Israeli Wolf Foundation (IWF), it honours those who have “distinguished themselves through their humanitarian commitment.”
Fischer and McCartney will collect the award – along with a cheque for €100,000, which they will split between them – at a ceremony in Jerusalem in May. The Wolf Foundation cited Fischer as “an inspirational conductor and eloquent defender of human rights” and recognised McCartney for “his seminal contribution to music in the modern era.”
Fischer is currently chief conductor of the Danish Chamber Orchestra, principal conductor for Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and artistic director at Budapest Wagner Days. His 2018 schedule includes performances with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in February and a complete Ring Cycle with Vienna State Opera in April.
Founded in 1975, IWF’s goal is to honour those who promote “friendly relations between peoples, regardless of nationality, race, colour, religion, gender, or political outlook.”
This year the foundation also awarded prizes in the fields of agriculture, physics, chemistry and mathematics. Past recipients of the music prize include Jessey Norman, Murray Perahia, Giya Kancheli, Gyorgy Ligeti, Luciano Berio, Claudio Abbado and Zubin Mehta.