Slovenian composer Nina Šenk has won this year's Erste Bank Composition Award, which is considered one of the most prestigious awards in contemporary music.

The award has been handed out by Erste Bank, an Austrian banking group, every year since 1989 to exceptional composers in honour of their creative work to date.

It comes with a minimum of three performances a new work commissioned from the winner by the Klangforum Wien orchestra within 12 months.

The premiere of the new piece usually takes place at Austria's largest festival of contemporary music, Wien Modern. Šenk's new composition will make its debut on 21 November.

Aged 42, Šenk is distinguished by "a high degree of virtuosity in her approach to form and musical architecture".

"Particularly impressive is her ability to think of sound in spatial terms and use it in an extraordinarily colourful way for the greatest possible effect of depth," Klangforum Wien said.

The jury believes that the composition which will be commissioned from Schenk will open up a new space of inspiration for both Klangforum Wien and the composer.

Šenk said that being awarded the Erste Bank Composition Award is an incredible honour.

"This award is not only a recognition of my work, but also a confirmation of my personal artistic journey over the last 20 years. Working with Klangforum Wien on a new piece allows me to delve into the depths of complex worlds of sound," she said.

Šenk graduated in composition and music theory from the Ljubljana Academy of Music and continued her studies at the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber Dresden and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, where she completed her master's degree in 2008.

She has previously received the European Prize for best composition at the Young Euro Classic festival (2004) and the Slovenian Prešeren Fund Prize (2017).