Deaf drummer and percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie will share the 2015 edition of the Polar Music Prize with country singer Emmylou Harris. The award committee made the announcment last week. They will be honored by Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf at a ceremony in Stockholm on June 9, and will receive one million Swedish krona, or about $117,000, in prize money.
Ms. Glennie, who is deaf, “has widened our understanding of what music is and shown us that listening is only partly to do with our ears,” the jury said. The rare solo percussionist with a fan following, she has collaborated with Björk and Béla Fleck, and released more than 30 albums. In an interview with the BBC, Ms. Glennie said: “There’s no such thing as total deafness. If the body can feel, that is a form of hearing. Sound is vibration, that’s what it is.”
Stig Anderson, the lyricist and manager for Abba, founded the Polar Music Prize in 1989. First presented in 1992, the award is typically given to a pop artist and a classical musician. Previous honorees have included Paul McCartney, Chuck Berry, Peter Sellars and Patti Smith.
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