2025 Aird Prize announcement

Congratulations to our 2025 Aird prize winner, Benet Casablancas! His piece, Haikus Notebook, will be performed at Earplay's March 24, 2026 concert at Noe Valley Ministry. Stay tuned for more details!

Earplay sponsors the annual Earplay Donald Aird Composers Competition, open to composers of any nationality and any age. Earplay performs the prizewinning piece and presents a cash prize of $1,500 to the winning composer. The competition honors the late composer/conductor/Earplay board member Donald Aird, an ardent supporter of the creation and performance of new music. Details regarding the 2026 Competition can be found here.

Thank you to everyone who submitted their work, and again, congratulations Benet!

About The Composer

Widely regarded as one of the leading Spanish composers of his generation, Benet Casablancas (Sabadell, 1956) studied in Barcelona and Vienna, and he graduated in Philosophy in the University of Barcelona, winning a PhD in musicology. His wide-ranging oeuvre, firmly rooted in the great modernist tradition and marked by a quest for radical personal independence, is notable for its great individuality, structural complexity and richness of textural detail. In the 1990s he became more concerned with harmony, timbral differentiation and instrumental virtuosism. Critics highlight his concern for balancing constructional rigour and expressive strength, lyricism, dramatic character and whimsical register.

His works are performed around Europe, Canada, US, Japan and Latino-America by ensembles such as Orquesta Nacional de España, Barcelona SO, London Philharmonic, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, BBC Symphony, NHK Tokyo, London Sinfonietta, Seattle Chamber Players, Perspectives Ensemble, or the Diotima, Arditti and Casals string quartets. Iconic venues such as the Miller Theater in New York or the Wiener Musikverein have presented Composers Portraits with his music. He has been composer in residence in Barcelona, Madrid and Bremen, and he was awarded the most prestigious National Prizes in Spain, been finalist on two ocassions for the Prix Prince Pierre de Monaco. He has been director of the Conservatori del Liceu and teaches regularly in Universities and Music Schools around the world. He is the author of the books El Humor en la Música and Paisajes del Romanticismo (Galaxia Gutenberg) In 2019, his first opera L'enigma di Lea was premiered at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, achieving great critical and public acclaim.

Learn more about the composer here.