Dame Evelyn Glennie has been named a Laureate for the Polar Music Prize 2015. The Scottish percussionist, who has been deaf since the age of 12, will receive the prize money of 1 million Swedish Krona from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in Stockholm on June 9. The ceremony – at which fellow recipient, the US singer Emmylou Harris, will also receive her award – will be broadcast live on Swedish national television, and throughout Europe via TV4 Play. 

The Polar Music Prize was established in 1989 by the late Stig Anderson who, as ABBA’s publisher, lyricist and manager, played a key role in the group’s success. Without any restrictions of nationality, the prize is awarded mostly annually, to one or more persons, for ‘significant achievements in music’. 

The award’s first recipient was Sir Paul McCartney in 1992, who donated part of his prize money to founding a performing arts school in Liverpool. Since then, Laureates have included Sofia Gubiadulina, Valery Gergeiv, Yo-Yo Ma and, last year, the director Peter Sellars.

Glennie has, according to the Polar Music Prize’s website, ‘widened our understanding of what music is and shown us that listening is only partly to do with our ears…In her home country of the United Kingdom, she has changed the criteria for acceptance by music schools, has been honoured by the Queen for her efforts and had a key role in the opening of the Olympic Games in London in 2012…Evelyn Glennie shows us that the body is a resonance chamber and that we live in a universe of sound.’

Susan Daniels, CEO for the National Deaf Children’s Society, paid tribute to the percussionist from Aberdeen, praising her for being ‘an exceptional role model for deaf children and young people across the UK. This latest accolade is a very clear reminder that, given the right support and encouragement, deaf children can do anything they put their mind to.’

Glennie herself is ‘hugely humbled and inspired’ by the award, the acceptance of which she considers a ‘great honour’: ‘To be chosen from so many deserving people, from all genres of music, only makes me want to work harder, to make a difference and to rise to the occasion.’