last updated 09/05/2024

§ 1 Awards from the International Gustav Mahler Society

The International Gustav Mahler Society regularly confers awards to honor and promote Mahler research and interpretation: the Golden Mahler Medal (§ 2) and the Promotion Prize for Mahler Researchers (§ 3). The decision on both awards is made by an award committee (§ 4).

§ 2 Golden Mahler Medal

The Golden Mahler Medal has been awarded by the International Gustav Mahler Society (IGMS) since 1958. Originally awarded to promote the dissemination of Gustav Mahler’s work, the Golden Mahler Medal is awarded from 2024 by decision of an award committee to people or institutions that have made outstanding contributions to the scientific and/or artistic exploration of Mahler’s life and work and their development and reappraisal. People or institutions are also honored that have played a decisive role in shaping and enriching the international Mahler discourse in science and art through long-term institutional initiatives. The Golden Mahler Medal is the IGMS’s most important honor and can be awarded as an award for a life’s work as well as for an outstanding individual publication (monograph or article) or artistic achievement. It is to be awarded every two years from 2024. The IGMS is free not to award the medal if no agreement can be reached on suitable persons or institutions.

Taking into account the scholarly orientation of the IGMS, Mahler researchers with an international reputation and expertise receive special consideration. The decisive criteria are extensive and long-term publication activity, which is proven by fundamental and innovative studies, as well as their relevance for Mahler research.

The Golden Mahler Medal is not awarded to active board and advisory board members of the IGMS. Former board and advisory board members can be nominated for an award after a three-year period following the end of active work in one of the boards. There are no posthumous awards because the number of people or institutions potentially worthy of an honor could neither be meaningfully limited nor plausibly justified.

§ 3 Promotion Prize for Mahler Researchers

In addition to the Golden Mahler Medal, the IGMS also supports younger Mahler researchers in their scholarly endeavors by offering a promotion prize. The prize is awarded every two years, alternating with the Golden Mahler Medal. The prize money is determined anew with each announcement, but is at least € 1,000. The award is announced every two years on January 15th with a submission deadline of May 15th. The winner will be announced by September 15th. The International Gustav Mahler Society reserves the right not to award the sponsorship prize. A division of the prize should be avoided, however, if the prize is not awarded, the intended prize money can be used for the following call and in this case up to two prize winners can then be awarded.

In order to be awarded the promotion prize, it is necessary to submit an academic text on Gustav Mahler, his biography, his work, its reception and interpretation, his era or his contemporaries. Studies can be submitted in the following form:

• a dissertation that has already been submitted to a university and received a positive review
• an article of at least 50,000 characters that has either been published or accepted for publication.

Only studies submitted by the announced deadline will be considered for an award. The presented study must have been submitted (dissertation) or accepted for publication or published (article) in the two years before the submission deadline. If an article was accepted for publication earlier than two years before the submission deadline, but was only published two years before the submission deadline or later, submission for the promotion price is permitted. Dissertations submitted or articles published earlier than two years before the submission deadline will not be considered.
Content requirements for submissions are:

• compliance with the rules of good scientific practice
• originality and innovation of the methodological approach
• presentation, quality, and traceability of the research results as well as their connection to and relevance for international Mahler research; fundamental expansion of the current state of research
• overall impression of the study.

Further criteria:

• age limit: 40 years (relevant age at the day of the submission deadline)
• languages: German, English.

The promotion prize is not awarded to active board and advisory board members of the IGMS. Former board and advisory board members can submit studies for the award after a three-year period following the end of active work in one of the boards, provided they meet all the criteria of the call.

It is possible to publish award-winning dissertations that have not yet been published in the Mahler Dimensions series, although receiving the award does not guarantee publication.

§ 4 Award Committee

The award committee is made up of five people chaired by the President of the IGMS. It consists of three members from the executive board and/or advisory board of the IGMS (including the President) as well as two external Mahler experts. The members of the committee are appointed by the IGMS executive board (for the first time in 2024) and must be reappointed or confirmed every four years, but can leave at any time at their own request. With the exception of the president of the IGMS, participation in the committee is limited to a maximum of eight years.

The committee draws up a list of people and institutions worthy of the Golden Mahler Medal and the promotion prize, whereby suggestions received from the executive board, advisory board, members, or other persons must be taken into account. For the promotion prize, all submitted studies that meet the call’s criteria must be taken into account in the decision.

The committee decides on the person or institution to be honored by means of a written majority vote. The decision must be confirmed by the IGMS executive board with a simple majority. The principles of equal treatment and transparency apply with regard to any possible close relationship between the person or institution to be honored and the members of the award committee. If such a close relationship exists, the committee member in question must abstain from voting.