The Giga-Hertz Prize for electronic music and sound art has been awarded by ZKM | Karlsruhe and the SWR Experimentalstudio since 2007. The award ceremony will happen during the Giga-Hertz Festival 2025, 20-22 November.
Two Production Awards, each with a prize of 5,000 EUR, are available for composers, sound artists, and artist-researchers working in electronic and electroacoustic music. There is also the PopExperimental Production Award, which recognises cross-genre work at the interface of electronic music, experimental aesthetics and popular music trends. This year, the prize is being offered as a production prize for the first time.
Depending on the production award, applicants (individuals or collectives) must submit one composition (maximum five years old) or an EP / Album / work (not older than three years) and a proposal for a not-yet-realised work lasting up to 20 minutes. Excerpts of the two prize-winning compositions will be performed by composers during the award ceremony.
The organisers encourage work proposals aligning with the theme of ‘Fellow Futures’, critically engaging with listening politics and amplifying voices that challenge linear, exclusionary narratives.
The awarded project will be produced at ZKM I Hertzlab (Karlsruhe, Germany) or SWR Experimentalstudio (Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany) and will premiere at ZKM I KUBUS in 2026. The production residency lasts three weeks at the SWR Experimentalstudio and four weeks at ZKM I Hertzlab. The production award of 5,000 EUR is intended to fully compensate for travel, accommodation, artist fees, material costs and performance costs.
