By Choi Jin-woo

The Germany-based composer Chin Unsuk (Unsuk Chin) is the first Asian to win the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize of Switzerland, an honor dubbed the Nobel Prize of classical music.

The Zug, Switzerland-based Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and Munich, Germany-based Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts on Jan. 25 said about Chin on the foundation's website, "With her great successes such as the opera 'Alice in Wonderland,' she has opened up new paths for new music and inspired a wide audience."

Dubbed the Nobel Prize of classical music, the honor is the world's most prestigious award in the field. A single winner is selected from the categories of classical music composition, conducting, instrumental performance, vocal performance and musicology based on his or her contributions to human culture.

Previous winners include composers Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez; conductors Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Claudio Abbado and Daniel Barenboim; violinist Gidon Kremer; and pianists Maurizio Pollini and Alfred Brendel.

"I'm so glad to receive such an important award in my second homeland of Germany," Chin said. "Winning this award is a far bigger honor than any other that I won before."

After earning her bachelor's in music composition at Seoul National University, she studied under composer Gyorgy Ligeti at the Hamburg University of Music and Theater in Germany. She won the Wihuri Sibelius Prize in 2017, Marie-Josee Kravis Prize for New Music in 2018, Hamburg Bach Prize in 2019 and Leonie Sonning Music Prize in 2021.

paramt@korea.kr