Exciting news for Borealis — we have been honoured with the Classical:NEXT Innovation Award!
The Classical:NEXT Innovation Award highlights groundbreaking projects that are shaping the future of classical music worldwide. It celebrates individuals and initiatives that drive progress through bold, yet thoughtful and effective, experimentation in ideas, planning, and action.
A dedicated Nominating Committee, composed of esteemed journalists and an industry expert, ensures a broad international perspective by identifying outstanding projects beyond national and professional boundaries. Each committee member nominates initiatives from their home country, along with one international project, to create an initial longlist. The committee then votes on these nominations, refining the selection to a shortlist of ten. The final recipients are determined through an online vote by all registered Classical:NEXT delegates.
Each year, three recipients are honoured at the Classical:NEXT Innovation Award Ceremony. For 2026, the Innovation Award placed a focus on New Technologies. This theme encompasses projects that meaningfully engage with emerging or advanced tools to reshape how classical and art music is created, performed, experienced, made accessible or understood. This may include works that embed technology as an integral artistic element (such as AI-driven composition, mixed-reality performance, spatial audio, robotics, or interactive digital instruments), initiatives that develop new technological solutions themselves, or artistic explorations that interrogate the evolving relationship between humans and machines. In all cases, the focus is on innovations that push the field forward by expanding creative possibilities, redefining performance practice, or opening new pathways for participation and access within the contemporary classical ecosystem.
Being recognised alongside such inspiring international projects means a great deal to our entire team. This award belongs to everyone who helps shape the Borealis festival — our incredible artists, collaborators, volunteers, partners, and our audience, whose support gives us a strong sense of purpose every year.
We are especially grateful to our former Artistic Director, Peter Meanwell, whose vision and leadership have been instrumental in shaping the festival over the years.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey with us. Borealis shares this recognition with two other outstanding organisations: SOAVE (Stage Orchestra Audio Video Experience) from Italy and Playing with Fire: An Immersive Odyssey from France — congratulations!
Read more about the award, nominated projects, and recipients on the Classical:NEXT website.