The Nobel Prize in Music goes to ‘Playing for Change’, Grandmaster Flash and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter

Hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and the charity Playing for Change have been named winners of the 2019 Polar Music Prize, presented by King Carl XVI Gustaf in Sweden on 11 June.

The announcement was made this morning, Wednesday 13 February, at Stockholm City Hall by Alfons Karabuda, chairman of the Polar Music Prize award committee.

This is such exciting news, which emphasizes how important it is to express oneself creatively and together. Hooray!

The Playing for Change Foundation was founded in the U.S. in 2007 by Whitney Kroenke and Mark Johnson, with a mission “to inspire, connect and bring peace to the world through music.” The foundation has created music programs in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ghana, Mali, Nepal, Rwanda, Morocco, Mexico, Argentina and Thailand. Every week in those countries, 2,000 young people attend classes in dance, musical instruments, languages and musical theory, all funded by the Foundation. Winning the Polar Music Prize “shows that the world is in tune with the same message as Playing For Change – no matter how many things in life divide us, they’re never as strong as the power of music to bring us together again,” Johnson tells Billboard. “And so being honored with something like this shows that people believe the same thing.”

– from article on att.net

Link to the whole article on att.net.