Keith Jarrett gets career Golden Lion (3)

(ANSA) - Venice, February 20 - US jazz pianist Keith Jarrett has been given the Venice Biennale Golden Lion for career achievement. The American pianist and composer will receive the award at the 62nd Biennale Festival of Contemporary Music on September 29.
    The Silver Lion goes to French-Argentinian musician Sebastian Rivas, among he most original artists of his generation.
    The awards were announced Tuesday by the Bienalle Foundation board under President Paolo Baratta.
    Jarrett's citation said: "An absolute musician, beloved by the public - with over four million recordings of the Köln Concert, considered his seminal work, sold around the world - Keith Jarrett will be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 62nd International Festival of Contemporary Music of the Biennale di Venezia on September 29th. "For this occasion, Keith Jarrett will perform one of his legendary improvisations on the piano, unique and unrepeatable events that have punctuated his career and contributed to redefining composition for the piano.
    "Unanimously acclaimed as one of the most important pianists in the area of improvisation and jazz music - reads the motivation - Keith Jarrett is an artist who has experimented with extraordinary talent and creativity in various musical genres including classical music, composing scores that are both refined and blistering at the same time. "His endless discography bears witness to a boundless art and a unique personality in the field of jazz, with an approach and signature style that are so personal as to make him a universal master in the history of music".