Brad Mehldau Receives the 2026 Edison Jazz Lifetime Achievement Award

American pianist, composer and arranger Brad Mehldau has received the Edison Oeuvreprijs Jazz, the lifetime achievement honor of the Netherlands' Edison music awards. Presenter Floris Kortie handed him the award during the Dutch public television program Podium Klassiek on NPO 2 on Sunday evening, Oct. 25, the Edison foundation said in a statement from Hilversum.

According to the statement, the jury report praises Mehldau for his unique talent for improvisation and for an incomparably strong ear for everything a melody can hold. The classical lifetime award went to the French piano duo Katia and Marielle Labèque. Last year's lifetime honors went to singer Gregory Porter in jazz and violinist Janine Jansen in classical music.

The same broadcast also revealed the winner of the Edison Jazz audience award, which is decided by a public vote. Dutch pianist Cor Bakker won it for his album Momentum Vol.1. The Edison website lists the other nominees as Julian Lage's Scenes from Above, Siegfried Hart's Awa, Fay Claassen's Soulprint, Dennis van Aarssen's Souvenirs, Ella Zirina's x mini x, Lucas Santana's Candomblé, Mavis Staples's Sad and Beautiful World, the Julia Hülsmann Octet's While I Was Away and Vice Versa II - Rebounce by Bram de Looze, Felix Henkelhausen and Eric McPherson.

After the presentation, Bakker performed Radiohead's "Like Spinning Plates" with cellist Anastasia Kobekina, who won the classical instrumental soloist award for her recording of Bach's cello suites.

The jury-selected jazz category winners had already been announced in the days before the ceremony, and three of them, the Nu Art Orchestra, the Idema/Serierse Quartet and Daan Kluwer, received their statuettes at a closed gathering before the broadcast. The foundation lists the full jazz results as the Nu Art Orchestra's The Tivoli Sessions #1 (national), Craig Taborn's Dream Archives (international), the Idema/Serierse Quartet's Serenade in Blue (national vocal), Kenny Barron's Songbook (international vocal), Harold López-Nussa's Nueva Timba (global) and Daan Kluwer's The Life of Billy (newcomer).

This year's Edison Jazz jury was made up of Frank Bolder, Mischa Andriessen, Marieke Meischke, Sakti Khedoe and Martine van Zelst. The foundation says its independent juries judge submissions on artistic merit and recording quality. The Edison is the oldest music award in the Netherlands, and its winners receive a bronze statuette by the sculptor Pieter d'Hont.