TONO's EDVARD Prize in the Challenger category for 2023 has been awarded to the members of the music collective DNA?AND? and the group MoE for the collaborative work "Hit me Down".
/ 04/12/2023 / Kristian DugstadDNA?AND? is a music collective based in Oslo that consists of young people with Down syndrome and professional musicians. In a collaborative project with the jazz band MoE members Håvard Skaset and Guro Skumsnes Moe, they have created a work in "Hit me Down", which according to the EDVARD jury's reasoning “… shows us what music is at its core – something that doesn’t necessarily have to be understood to touch and do something to us”.
The collective was presented with the award, which consists of 50,000 kroner, a trophy and a diploma designed by Magne Furuholmen, during a rehearsal in Oslo on Saturday, December 2.
The EDVARD winners in DNA?AND? are Bjarne Larsen, Johannes Tjøtta Svendsen, Jostein Hylin, Lene Høie, Mats Aase Henriksen, Ola Skarsæterhagen, Stina Moltu, Vilde Erikstad, Vilja Ellefsen-Larsen and Harald Fetveit, but also the MoE members Håvard Skaset and Guro Skumsnes Moe.
This year's challenger shows us what music is at its core — something that doesn't necessarily have to be understood to touch and do something to us. It is an artist collective consisting of professional and experimental musicians with an odd number of chromosomes. They make music in a way we don't learn about in school. Together they create strong experiences for the audience and change our understanding of music and quality. They have left their mark inside and outside Norway's borders and we hope they will continue to do so for a long time to come. Thank you for doing what you do and congratulations to DNA?AND? on the EDVARD Award for Challenger of the Year!
The EDVARD Prize has been awarded annually by TONO since 1998, and is awarded in five categories to composers and lyricists who have created musical works of particularly high quality in the previous year. A highly qualified professional jury selects the winners.
– With the EDVARD Prize, TONO wants to honor outstanding composers, create awareness about newly written Norwegian music, and help increase understanding of how important the work done by composers, lyricists and songwriters is, says TONO's communications director, Willy Martinsen.
The jury in 2023 has consisted of Sten Ove Toft (independent, jury leader), Agnes Hvizdalek (Norwegian Composers' Association), Alexander Austheim (NOPA), Andrew Smith (Music Publishers), Martin Rane Bauck (Norwegian Composers' Association), Oda Svendsby (Music Publishers), Ole Børud (independent) and Samsaya Sharma (NOPA).
About TONO
TONO was founded in 1928 and is a non-profit cooperative owned and managed by composers, lyricists and music publishers, and which manages the economic copyrights in their musical works. TONO grants permission for the use of protected music on radio, TV, the internet, concerts, cinema, etc. for a fee, and transfers its financial results each year to the rights holders of music that has been performed publicly. TONO has more than 40,000 members, but also works for millions of authors and music publishers from around the world. TONO gives music creators an economic basis to create new music, and collects and simplifies the licensing of protected music to music users. TONO had a turnover of NOK 864,6 million in 2022.
Willy Martinsen, Communications Director at TONO, willy.martinsen@tono.no; Tel. +47,909 65 254