The Hermitage Artist Retreat and the Aspen Music Festival and School (Aspen, Colorado) are pleased to announce Harriet Steinke, a composition student at AMFS, has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 Hermitage Prize in Composition. Steinke is the twelfth recipient of this annual award, which includes a residency at the Hermitage, made possible with generous support from Friends of the Hermitage in Aspen.
Steinke was selected by a jury that includes multiple Grammy Award winner Robert Spano, Music Director of the AMFS, Artistic Director Laureate of the Atlanta Symphony, and a past member of the Hermitage Curatorial Council; award-winning composer and celebrated arts administrator Alan Fletcher, AMFS President and CEO; and the composition faculty of the AMFS, including Grammy Award-winning Hermitage Fellow Christopher Theofanidis.
Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg presented the award to Steinke at the Aspen Music Festival’s Klein Tent, alongside Spano, Fletcher, and Theofanidis. This unique initiative, launched in 2013, reflects an invaluable partnership between AMFS and the Hermitage, designed to champion new and original works and to recognize exceptional talent in the field of contemporary classical music. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of this award in 2023, the Hermitage and AMFS produced a retrospective video featuring exclusive interviews with past winners, distinguished AMFS faculty members, and renowned thought leaders in music, which can be seen here (full URL link below). With established composers like Spano, Fletcher, Theofanidis, Nico Muhly, and more having experienced memorable Hermitage Fellowships, the Hermitage Prize in Composition was created to offer the same experience to young, talented composers just beginning their professional careers.
“We are thrilled to recognize Harriet Steinke as the winner of the twelfth annual Hermitage Prize,” noted Sandberg. “Harriet is a brilliant young composer whose work has been heard across the United States, and we know she will a welcome addition to the Hermitage community. We were delighted that the weekend’s festivities could be celebrated alongside fellow Hermitage alumni including Robert Spano, Alan Fletcher, and Christopher Theofanidis. We are grateful for our continuing collaboration with the Aspen Music Festival, which just presented the world premiere of Siddhartha, She – an original opera conceived and developed at the Hermitage by five Hermitage Fellows.”
The Hermitage Prize at AMFS is the only student residency awarded each year; all other Hermitage Fellows are accomplished working professionals and leaders in their fields, selected by the Hermitage’s National Curatorial Council. This provides the recipient of the annual Hermitage Prize in Composition the opportunity to share this unmatched Hermitage experience with leading artists from all around the world.
This year’s season of the world-renowned Aspen Music Festival featured works and performances from Hermitage alumni including AMFS Music Director Robert Spano, AMFS President Alan Fletcher, Patrick Harlin, Jessie Montgomery, Anne Patterson, Melissa Studdard, Christopher Theofanidis, and Conrad Tao.
Hermitage Fellows have included 18 Pulitzer Prize winners, multiple Grammy, Oscar, Emmy, and Tony winners, Poets Laureate, MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellows, and more. Hermitage Fellows regularly describe their time at the Hermitage as “magical,” “transformative,” and “life-changing.”
2025 Hermitage Prize in Composition winner Harriet Steinke is a concert-music composer from Michigan. She has worked with chamber ensembles, orchestras, and soloists across the United States, and has premiered multiple works in her hometown city of Detroit. Her music has been recognized with a Charles Ives Scholarship Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as composition fellowships from summer festivals at Aspen, Tanglewood, and Norfolk. She holds degrees in music and English from Butler University and two graduate degrees in music composition from the Yale School of Music.
“I am extremely grateful to be awarded this year’s Hermitage Prize in Composition,” said Steinke. “For a composer, the most valuable resource is the time and space to be creative and explore our ideas, without distraction from the outside world. It is an incredible privilege to have this opportunity to create new work at the Hermitage. I cannot wait to join the amazing community of artists that have also spent time at this beautiful and inspiring place, and I look forward to the new musical work I’ll create during my residency.”
Following the award presentation on the stage of the Klein Tent, Steinke was recognized at a reception hosted by Marsha and David Dowler in celebration of the Hermitage Prize and the AMFS composition program. At this event, Steinke’s original work “Processional” was debuted by the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble (ACE), conducted by Timothy Weiss.
Previous residencies of AMFS Hermitage Prize recipients have led to exciting collaborations, lifelong friendships, and extraordinary new compositions. The first winner of this award in 2013 was Patrick Harlin. While in residence at the Hermitage, Harlin met acclaimed designer and visual artist Anne Patterson. The two sparked a decade-long collaboration that led to the world premiere exhibition, “The Truth of the Night Sky,” at the Sarasota Art Museum in the fall of 2024. Harlin and Patterson also spent time at the Hermitage with AMFS composer Christopher Theofanidis and celebrated poet Melissa Studdard; as a result, these four Hermitage alumni began a multi-year collaboration which led to the recent world premiere of Siddhartha, She at the Aspen Music Festival. Adapted from Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, this original opera developed at the Hermitage featured music by Christopher Theofanidis, a libretto by Melissa Studdard, design and direction by Anne Patterson, soundscape design by Patrick Harlin, and music direction by Robert Spano – all five Hermitage alumni. This newly created work received a robust standing ovation and critical acclaim at the Aspen Music Festival on August 2, 2025.
“I cannot adequately describe how grateful I feel to be at the Hermitage Artist Retreat this summer,” said last year’s Hermitage Prize winner Hannah Rice of her resulting residency, still ongoing. “Life is so fast-paced for young artists, so to be awarded the time to wake up and watch the sunrise and ground myself is truly a gift. I am so unbelievably inspired by the ocean, the sounds of the birds squawking, and the beauty of mother earth, and I feel so thankful for this invaluable time to get back to child-like play in my music studio. I have also had the opportunity to connect with some incredible, seasoned artists here, and I have learned so much from their insights and experiences. As I approach the end of my time on Manasota Key, I am trying to soak in everything that this gorgeous place and these wonderful people have to offer and to splatter as many sounds against the canvas as I can. It is truly a privilege to be here at the Hermitage, and I keep reminding myself I’m not in a dream!”
Past winner David Clay Mettens (2021) said of winning the Hermitage Prize: “My time at the Hermitage was such a gift – I found the natural beauty of the Hermitage to be rejuvenating and my interactions with artists from other disciplines so artistically fulfilling. I can’t imagine a better opportunity for a young composer than to be in the presence of creative luminaries in their respective fields.” Previous Hermitage Prize recipients include Patrick Harlin (2013), Thomas Kotcheff (2014), Phillip Sink (2015), Andrew Hsu (2016), Joel Thompson (2017), Sid Richardson (2018), Chelsea Komschlies (2019), David Clay Mettens (2021), Sofía Rocha (2022), Matīss Čudars (2023), and Hannah Rice (2024).