Composer Laura Vega and performer Cecilia Bercovich were honored this Thursday with the 2026 National Music Awards, granted by the Ministry of Culture and endowed with 30,000 euros each. The jury recognized Laura Vega for “the personality and maturity of a creative language that has significantly enriched contemporary Spanish music, with works composed in 2025 such as Riojana for guitar and orchestra, Beyond the Worlds III or Al-Wadi Brass Quintet. While Cecilia Bercovich is highlighted for “her virtuosity and her ability to successfully combine different styles and techniques through the three instruments she masters: violin, viola, and viola d’amore.”
The Culture statement emphasizes that Vega’s work (Vecindario, Gran Canaria, 48 years old) combines “innovation, sensitivity, a deep connection with Canarian cultural identity, and the ability to connect with the audience.” It also notes “the solidity of a personal compositional language capable of integrating tradition and innovation.
She holds a doctorate from the University of La Laguna (Tenerife) and is a professor of Composition at the Superior Conservatory of Music of the Canary Islands, where she has taught since 2003 at its Gran Canaria campus. She has been a full academic member of the Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts since 2011.
Vega trained at the Superior Conservatory of Music of Las Palmas, where she obtained the Professional Degree in Oboe and the Higher Degrees in Piano, Musical Language, and Composition. Later, she expanded her training at the University of Alcalá de Henares and the Soto Mesa School in Madrid.
With more than 80 works, her catalog includes various genres, with a special presence of orchestral repertoire. Among her compositions are Concerto for oboe and two orchestral groups, Images of an Island for orchestra and Gomero whistling; In Paradisum, concerto for piano and orchestra; Angel of Light, double concerto for percussion, string orchestra, and harp; Galdosiana for orchestra; Caelum in Terra, for piano and orchestra; Light, Love and Ecstasy, concerto for guitar and orchestra, and Zafra, Canarian concerto for timple and orchestra.
Her music has been performed by ensembles such as the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Puerto Rico, the National Orchestra of Colombia, the National Orchestra of Spain, the Radio Television Spain Orchestra, the Extremadura Orchestra, the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville, the Córdoba Orchestra, the Oviedo Filarmonía, the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, the Las Palmas Symphony Orchestra, and the Young Orchestra of the Canary Islands.
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Cecilia Bercovich (Madrid, 40 years old) is a violin, viola, and viola d’amore performer. She has performed as concertmaster and section leader under the direction of maestros Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, Heinz Holliger, and Krzysztof Penderecki at the festivals of Lucerne, Salzburg, Turin, or the Wagner Festpiele in Bayreuth, among others. Chamber music and improvisation occupy a large part of her career, in which she has collaborated with Maria João Pires, Asier Polo, Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, Miguel Ituarte, Javier Negrín, Sabine Meyer, and Cristina Montes.
Additionally, she is a member of the Meitar ensemble from Tel Aviv, Variances from Paris, and the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Ensemble, and is an associate artist of Quantum Tenerife.
The jury highlights Bercovich’s “performances in 2025 as part of orchestras and groups such as Orquesta MusicaAeterna or the Lucerne Festival Ensemble, and for her special commitment to Spanish musical heritage and to music created in the 20th and 21st centuries, which last year alone translated into premiering 16 works, of which 10 belong to Spanish female composers.”
Bercovich has been a professor at the Superior Conservatory of Music of Aragón and at the Katarina Gurska Higher Center. Since 2023, she has been a viola professor at the Superior Conservatory of Murcia.
The jury, chaired by the Director General of Performing Arts and Music, Javier Monsalve Iglesias, included as vice president the Director General of the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (Inaem), Paz Santa Cecilia Aristu, and as members the Deputy Director General of Music, Ana Belén Faus Guijarro; Òscar Colomina i Bosch, Teresa Catalán Sánchez, María Esther Guzmán-Ferre Blanco, Miguel Ángel Marín López, and Karla Soledad Beltrán Talavera.
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