The twelfth BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Music and Opera has been awarded to Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. Creator of tintinnabuli, a compositional technique developed in the mid-1970s and centred around the voice and the composer’s experience of mysticism in chanted music, Pärt is cited for his unique spiritual music, which saw him exiled from Estonia during the Soviet era. He returned to the country in 2010.

Pärt was honoured “for cultivating an original language, which has led to the creation of a unique sound world; a fresh approach to spiritual music, especially in his choral oeuvre, that reduces the musical material to the essence”, said the Foundation.

Pärt himself is said to be “delighted and grateful” for the award.