Composer Sara Glojnarić has been announced as the winner of the Berlin Philharmonic Karajan Academy’s 2026 Claudio Abbado Composition Prize.
The annual prize, which honors young composers with a commission performed by the Karajan Academy’s orchestra, is named for Claudio Abbado, who served as the Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1989 to 2002 and was a prominent supporter of the academy.
Glojnarić’s newly-commissioned work, can you play a song with a f*cking beat?! :)), will be performed at the Academy’s concert on October 31st. The composer will supervise the premiere.
The new piece revolves around the concept of “queer joy,” and draws inspiration from pop artist Chappell Roan’s hit 2022 song Femininomenon. According to Glojnarić, “The piece is about joy, about doing things that are hard, but also about finding community.”
“Joy can be such a powerful motor for resistance as well,” says Glojnarić. “That’s something that so many queer people around the world know and that has been almost like a legacy and a tradition in the queer movement. For me, it was really important to focus on that aspect as well. Our lives are not just tragic and sad—there is a lot of joy…and that joy is a big motor for change.”
Croatian composer Sara Glojnarić has been the recipient of the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for young composers, the Kranichstein Music Prize at the Darmstadt Summer Course, the Donaueschingen Festival of New Music’s SWR Orchestra Prize, and GEMA’s German Music Authors’ Award. Her works, which spans opera, orchestral pieces, chamber music, and multimedia installations, explores collective memory, pop culture and aesthetics, and social and political implications of contemporary data worlds.
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