Concertgebouw Prize for mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato

The Concertgebouw Prize 2024 has been awarded to Joyce DiDonato. The American mezzo-soprano will receive this honour in September 2024 for her exceptional contribution to the artistic profile of the Concertgebouw. With this, the world-renowned singer joins an illustrious group including conductor Jaap van Zweden, violinist Janine Jansen, baritone Thomas Hampson, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Before receiving the Concertgebouw Prize in the fall, DiDonato will appear in the Concertgebouw on 13 March with her programme Songplay.

‘I feel immense gratitude to the Concertgebouw for this overwhelming recognition of my commitment to music in our world. Joining this exemplary roster of past recipients – all icons of their time – simply charges me anew to never forget the power of music in our world to comfort, to heal and to transform. I feel more charged than ever to share the pure joy and blissful power of music more radically than ever!’

Joyce DiDonato

Joyce DiDonato and the Concertgebouw

The multiple Grammy winner is a frequent and welcomed guest in Amsterdam. The American mezzo-soprano quickly gained international acclaim, initially in baroque and classical repertoires. At the Concertgebouw, she consistently surprises her audience with original programmes spanning five centuries of repertoire. But that’s not all: her work often reveals great social commitment, such as the programme EDEN where she paid tribute to nature in concert halls worldwide. Her commitment also extends beyond the concert hall with performances in prisons, refugee camps and schools.’

Joyce DiDonato debuted in the Recital Hall in June 2007 and in the Main Hall a year and a half later. Her 11 June 2021 re-opening concert after the Corona shutdown was historic for the Concertgebouw. In two one-hour appearances, with a maximum audience of 250 attendees, she gave an impressive performance. Her album Songplay earned her a Grammy as well as the title Female Singer of the Year at the Opus Klassik Awards. On 13 March 2024, Joyce DiDonato will bring Songplay to Amsterdam. Tickets are available via the Concertgebouw’s website.

‘Joyce DiDonato demonstrates the power of music unlike anyone else. In the Concertgebouw, she delivers creatively engaging and top-notch concerts. While she also brings music to places where it doesn’t typically resonate. With her warm personality and voice, she succeeds in touching every audience.’

Managing Director Simon Reinink

Concertgebouw Prize

The Concertgebouw Prize, which will be awarded for the fourteenth time on 18 September during a gala dinner in the Main Hall, is an initiative of the managements and boards of both the Concertgebouw and Concertgebouw Fund. The prize is intended for musicians who have contributed to the artistic profile of the Concertgebouw over an extended period. Previous laureates include Cecilia Bartoli (2004), the Beaux Arts Trio (2006), Bernard Haitink (2007), the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (2009), Maurizio Pollini (2010), Thomas Hampson (2011), Janine Jansen (2013), Yo-Yo Ma (2014), Sir John Eliot Gardiner (2016), the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra / Netherlands Radio Choir (2017), the Hagen Quartet (2019), trumpeter Wynton Marsalis (2021) and conductor Jaap van Zweden (2023).

The Concertgebouw Prize consists of an artwork and a permanent entry for the laureate on the honorary tableau opposite the Main Hall’s soloist staircase.

We need you to make us feel an integral PART of a shared existence through the communal, universal, forgiving language of music, of dance, of poetry and Art – so that we never lose sight of the fact that we are all in this together and that we are all deserving of a life that overflows with immense possibility, improbable beauty and relentless truth.

Joyce DiDonato