Music & wine: Chinese-American composer Tan Dun wins the “Beethoven Friendship Award”

An award dedicated to artists who have contributed exceptionally to musical culture and wine culture: the “Beethoven Friendship Award”, edition No. 1, has been presented to Chinese-American composer Tan Dun. He will receive the famous “Friendship Wine Glass” - a c of the one designed by Ludwig van Beethoven - and a wine cabinet containing 12 precious magnums. The award also includes a charity auction featuring the same case of rare wines. Established by Beethoven-Haus Bonn and Weingüter Wegeler, the initiative is supported by renowned Italian philosopher, architect, and designer Michele De Lucchi, as well as 11 prestigious European wineries. Representing Italy, there are two of the country most celebrated estates, Gaja and Tenuta San Guido, alongside Domaine Paul Jaboulet Aîné, Klaus Peter Keller, Château Lascombes, Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier, Erwin Sabathi, Schloss Gobelsburg, Château Smith Haut Lafitte, Weingüter Wegeler, Vega Sicilia, and Château d’Yquem.
The award will be awarded to Tan Dun, Chinese-American composer and conductor, already Academy Award winner, on December 17th at Beethoven-Haus Bonn, in Germany. This honor recognizes his deep artistic commitment to Beethoven, which began in 1973 when, working in a rice field in China Hunan province, he first heard Beethoven classical music on the radio of the village. Recently, he got awarded for his “Choral Concerto: Nine”, performed in 2024 by the German National Youth Orchestra and the World Youth Choir. The text, orchestration, and the message of peace in the work are closely tied to Beethoven Ninth Symphony and the theme of wine.
Tan Dun, a passionate wine connoisseur, will receive a truly special case, made up of 12 magnums of rare wines, inserted in a wine cabinet designed by Michele De Lucchi. At its center is a of the “Friendship Wine Glass” which Beethoven gifted in 1816 to his childhood friend Franz Gerhard Wegeler (the original is on permanent display at Beethoven-Haus).
The case was crafted in only three examples by the Beethoven-Haus workshop, made of black oxidized oak and inspired by wine barrels. To mark the occasion, one of these cabinets, complete with its contents, will be sold in an online charity auction conducted by RR Auction, with proceeds supporting an artistic project that Tan Dun will create with Beethoven-Haus in 2027.