2013 ECF Princess Margriet Award

Living in Germany, the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the International Mahler Orchestra and 1st Kapellmeister and Vice Music Director of the Staatstheater Kassel, Yoel Gamzou was selected for his exceptional talent and energy in inspiring different generations of musicians and diverse audiences across Europe.

The Award recognises his insightful conducting and his skill as a communicator in finding a new means of interpreting and engaging with classical music as a contemporary form of cultural expression. Gamzou’s artistic direction of the International Mahler Orchestra is just one of many examples of how he is re-thinking classical music, giving it new vitality relevant to contemporary times. Gamzou challenges the conventional structures of the classical music genre and in so doing uncovers its democratic potential.

Yoel Gamzou was chosen for his exceptional talent and energy in inspiring different generations of musicians and diverse audiences.

Visual artist couple Lia & Dan Perjovschi from Romania were selected by the European Cultural Foundation Princess Margriet Award Jury for the active role that their art has played in Romanian culture and community building since the late 1980s, as well as its wider European relevance and global impact. While Lia Perjovschi has gained prominence for her time-based performance works and setting up the Contemporary Art Archive/Center for Art Analysis CAA (now housed in their studio in Sibiu), Dan Perjovschi translates social, cultural and political life into temporary drawings, a powerful and poetic form of graffiti drawn onto the walls of contemporary art spaces all over the world.

Alongside their international reputation, the Perjovschis have always remained grounded in Romania, working collaboratively to deepen the public’s historical and cultural awareness of art’s role in society. With boundless generosity, the Perjovschis have used their studio as a public space, turning it into an accessible, bottom-up environment for cultural action and education, involving different generations to share knowledge and to envisage new spaces of imagination and possibility against dominant and undemocratic ideologies.

Lia & Dan Perjovschi were honoured for the active role that their art has played in Romanian culture and community building since the late 1980s, as well as its wider European relevance and global impact.