Hermitage Artist Retreat hosted an online meeting Monday evening to announce the recipient of the 2025 Hermitage Greenfield Prize in Music. The Prize winner receives a residency at the Hermitage to work on their craft in the hope that a great work of art will result. It is awarded annually, rotating between the fields of music, theater and visual art. Viewers tuned in for the announcement of this prestigious national commission which was a surprise reveal, even to the recipient. 

The 2025 music prize was awarded to Rucyl Mills, a visionary composer whose innovative work blends noise art, bass wave, sample collage and avant-garde R&B. Using MIDI controllers, drone synths and effects processors, Mills creates experimental compositions that serve as kinetic architectures for stage and film. She will receive a six-week Hermitage Fellowship and a $35,000 commission to develop a new musical work which will debut publicly in Sarasota in 2027.

Mills was selected by an esteemed jury that included Amy Cassello, Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM); Lia Camille Crockett, a renowned music curator for entities such as NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest and SXSW, and the founder of Parcha Projects; and Grammy Award-winning conductor and composer Robert Spano, Music Director of the Aspen Music Festival and Music Director Laureate of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Past winners of the Greenfield Prize in Music include Angélica Negrón (2022), Helga Davis (2019), Bobby Previte (2015), Vijay Iyer (2012), and Eve Beglarian.

The 2025 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner will be held on Sunday, April 6th at Michael’s On East. 

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