Composer Arvo Pärt will receive Germany’s prestigious national award, the Goethe Medal. The award is presented by the Goethe Institute in Germany, and this year’s laureates are, alongside Arvo Pärt, Italian translator Anita Raja, and Greek theater director Prodromos Tsinikoris. The Goethe Medal will be awarded by Gesche Joost, the President of the Goethe-Institut, at a ceremony in Weimar on 28 August 2026.
The Goethe Medal jury, which includes the heads of several important German cultural institutions, representatives of the German Foreign Ministry and the Goethe Institute, named Arvo Pärt an outstanding and influential figure in contemporary music.
“Over the course of his long artistic career, Arvo Pärt has found a unique compositional language that touches and connects people all over the world. After emigrating from then Soviet Estonia, he lived in Berlin for almost 30 years. He developed his tintinnabuli style after a long creative break, producing works such as ‘Für Alina,’ ‘Tabula Rasa’ and ‘Spiegel im Spiegel,’ which produce new sound experiences. The combination of spirituality and structural depth in Pärt’s works is unique. The best orchestras and interpreters perform his music with great regularity. For his 90th birthday last year, a number of concerts were held in honour of this formative and outstanding personality of contemporary music,” the jury wrote in its explanation.
The award will be accepted on behalf of Arvo Pärt by his son and chairman of the board of the Arvo Pärt Centre, Michael Pärt.
The majority of Arvo Pärt’s major works were completed during his years living in Germany, including “Berliner Messe”, which was created for the 90th German Catholic Church Days held in Berlin in May 1990 – the first after the fall of the Berlin Wall. One of Arvo Pärt’s most important German-language choral cycles, the liturgical text-based “Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen” (1988/1991), commissioned by the Berlin RIAS Chamber Choir for its 40th anniversary, also dates from the same period. The large-scale works “Passio” (1982), “Te Deum” (1985/2007) and “Miserere” (1989/1992) were also written during this period.
The composer’s long-term fruitful collaboration with the renowned producer Manfred Eicher also began in Germany, under whose label ECM numerous first recordings of Arvo Pärt’s works and original albums have been released. Arvo Pärt’s later work includes “Vater unser” (2005/2011), based on the German text of the Lord’s Prayer, and dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI.
Since 1955, the Goethe-Instituthas awarded the Goethe Medal once a year as an official decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Goethe Medal honours public figures who render outstanding services to conveying the German language and to international cultural exchange. The Goethe Medal is the most important award of Germany’s foreign cultural and educational policy.
Previous recipients of the Goethe Medal include creative individuals such as director and artist Robert Wilson, conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim, and composer Sofia Gubaidulina.
Arvo Pärt is the first Estonian to receive the Goethe Medal.