Sufjan is receiving The Brendan Gill Prize issued by the Municipal Arts Society for “The BQE”, which premiered at BAM last November.

The prize was created by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1986 and is awarded annually. Ms. Kennedy Onassis said of the prize, it will acknowledge a “creator of a building, book, essay, poem, lyric, song, composition, play, painting, sculpture, choreography, landscape or any work of art which best captures the energy, vigor, and verve of our incomparable city.”

Past winners include Christo and Jeanne Claude for The Gates, Ang Lee for the Wedding Banquet, Joseph Mitchell for Up in the Old Hotel, architect Yoshio Taniguchi for the new Museum of Modern Art and many more. Sufjan is the first musician to receive the prize.

Congratulations Sufjan!