Leona Jones wins 'Karl Sczuka Prize for Radio Art'

In the final vote for the Karl Sczuka Prize 2025, the jury made the following unanimous decision: The Karl Sczuka Prize 2025 will be awarded to Leona Jones for her radio piece apeiron, a production by the Südwestrundfunk from 2024.

The jury gave the following reasons for its decision:

'The Karl Sczuka Prize 2025 goes to the work "apeiron" by Welsh sound artist Leona Jones. The studio production is based on field recordings from the harbour town Stromness on the Scottish Orkney Islands. The vocal soloist Audrey Chen reacts to the sounds of the surf and water with experimental vocal articulations, creating a dialogue between the elemental forces of the ocean and physical human expression. Using electronic processing and composition, Jones creates an open radiophonic listening experience that sometimes follows the rhythm of the tides, sometimes interrupts it, plays around with it or transcends it.'

The 2025 Karl Sczuka support grant goes to the production Polyphonie an der Peripherie by Jorn Ebner (b. 1966). The Karl Sczuka Research Grant 2025 in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut goes to Dinah Bird (b. 1975) for her audio piece Surface Bruit.

This year, 95 entries from 31 countries were submitted. An independent jury chaired by visual artist Olaf Nicolai decided on the winners from 23 June to 26 June 2025 in Baden-Baden. Other jury members were Inke Arns, Julia Cloot, Michael Grote and Thomas Meinecke.

For further information visit: www.SWR2.de/sczuka

Leona Jones’s experimental practice is based in sound and she uses her own recordings to create abstract soundscapes as site-responsive events / performances / installations which highlight physicality and context. She considers sound in its widest definition (to include language both spoken and written) and its symbiotic relationships with space, movement and time - TIsi{sound}lencestill{move}nessME.

Cross-disciplinary collaboration is central to her practice, and she’s worked with musicians, dancers and visual artists. She makes a concerted effort to reach into an audience’s imagination, encouraging their ability to listen.

Leona’s commitment to inclusivity means, although her work has been presented/performed in galleries, it’s just as likely to respond to places and spaces not usually associated with arts. Her projects have been financially supported by arts bodies and a variety of other organisations, and she was awarded Distinction by Dartington / Falmouth University in her MA Performance Writing. She is based in Cardiff.

leonajones.co.uk