BUDAPEST, Nov. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Hungarian contemporary composer Gyorgy Kurtag won the 2006 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for his music composition "Concertante Op.42" for violin, viola and orchestra, reported local media on Monday.

    The 26-minute piece, one large movement divided into several sections plus a two-part coda, uses a large orchestra for a concerto and includes solos written for and performed by violinist Hiromi Kikuchi and violist Ken Hakii.

    The work, described as ranging through "many changes of mood, tempo and texture," was commissioned by the Leonie Sonning Foundation of Copenhagen. Since its premiere in September 2003 by the Danish Radio Orchestra, it has been performed in Europe, Japanand the United States.

    Kurtag's piece, winner of the 20th Grawemeyer music prize, was selected from 145 entries from around the world. The 2005 music award went to George Tsontakis for "Violin Concerto No. 2."

    Kurtag, 79, has had a long and distinguished career in music. In 1946, he enrolled in the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he studied composition under Sandor Veress and Ferenc Farkas,piano under Pal Kadosa and chamber music under Leo Weiner.

    In the early 1990s, Kurtag worked more frequently outside Hungary. He served as a composer-in-residence with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Konzerthaus and worked with other organizations in the Netherlands and France. Kurtag has been living and working in Paris since 1996.

    The Grawemeyer Awards were created in 1984 by late American industrialist, entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist Charles Grawemeyer at the University of Louisville, where he was graduated.

    Today the Grawemeyer Foundation awards 1 million US dollars each year -- 200,000 dollars each for music composition, education,ideas improving world order, religion and psychology. The prize for music was first given in 1985. Enditem