The Karl Sczuka Prize has been awarded since 1955 but it was not bestowed on an annual basis until 1967. Named after the resident composer at the Südwestfunk in the years after the broadcaster was established, it was initially awarded for music in radiodrama. Following amendment of the regulations in the years from 1969-72, it has become the internationally most important prize for cutting-edge works of radio art.
Since 1972, the prizes have been awarded during the Donaueschingen Festival. The laudations by the judges, delivered there since 1974, have been documented along with other contributions in a book published in 2005 by the Baden-Baden publisher Nomos Verlag: Hermann Naber/ Heinrich Vormweg/ Klaus Ramm/ Hans Burkhard Schlichting: Akustische Spielformen. Von der Hörspielmusik zur Radiokunst. Der Karl-Sczuka-Preis 1955-2005 (SWR Schriftenreihe. Grundlagen 1), 380 pages. 24.00 Euros. ISBN 3-8329-1584-2.
The prize-winning works of recent years are documented online on this site.
Prize winners have included Frédéric Acquaviva, Juan Allende-Blin, Serge Baghdassarians, Boris Baltschun, Barry Bermange, Martin Brandlmayr, John Cage, Iris Drögekamp, Oswald Egger, Hans-Olaf Ericsson, Luc Ferrari, Hartmut Geerken, Ulrich Gerhardt, Stefano Giannotti, Heiner Goebbels, Hanna Hartman, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Pierre Henry, Institut fuer Feinmotorik, Ulrike Janssen, Patricia Jünger, Mauricio Kagel, Walter Kempowski, Florian Kindlinger, Alison Knowles, Ferdinand Kriwet, Christina Kubisch, Peter Kutin, Ole Lützow-Holm, Friederike Mayröcker, Thomas Meinecke, Franz Mon, David Moufang, Wolfgang Müller, Olaf Nicolai, Jon Rose, Gerhard Rühm, R. Murray Schafer, Richard P. Scott, Asmus Tietchens, Urs Widmer, Caroline Wilkins, Stephan Wunderlich, Wilhelm Zobl and Peter Zwetkoff.
The support grant, endowed from 1997 till 2019, has been awarded to Jiří Adámek, Blagomir Alexiev, Andreas Bick, Marco Blaauw, David Michael DiGregorio, Oswald Egger, Thomas Gerwin, Hanna Hartman, Ulrike Janssen, Philip Jeck, Jan Jelinek, Bernadette Johnson, Sung Hwan Kim, Dagmara Kraus, Marc Matter, Rafael Nassif, No Input Ensemble & 2xC, Carsten Schneider, Johannes S. Sistermanns, Anja Utler, Antje Vowinckel and Ladislav Železný.
