He is a musician who has moral courage and gets involved. Igor Levit is also honored for this.
The pianist Igor Levit (35) was awarded the Carl von Ossietzky Prize by the city of Oldenburg. The award, which is worth 10,000 euros, is to be presented on December 9, as the city announced on Wednesday.
The jury justified its decision by positioning Levit consistently against racism, anti-Semitism, hostility towards Muslims and the brutalization of the language. «With his voice as a musician and as a person who thinks, speaks and acts politically, Igor Levit reaches people of different generations and sensitizes them to the urgency of courageous civil society commitment.»
Levit was born in Nizhny Novgorod in what was then the Soviet Union in 1987 to Jewish parents. As a child he came to Hanover with his family, where he continued his piano studies. Studies, scholarships, concerts in different countries and many awards followed. With “house concerts” on the piano, Levit, who lives in Berlin, caused a distraction via social media during the corona pandemic. The internationally acclaimed pianist campaigns against right-wing extremism and for more climate protection and peace.
The Carl von Ossietzky Prize for Contemporary History and Politics is awarded every two years to commemorate the Nobel Peace Prize winner Carl von Ossietzky (1889-1938). The prize honors people who deal with the life and work of Carl von Ossietzky or the resistance against National Socialism and the democratic tradition and present in Germany in an outstanding way.
