In 1972 Ernst von Siemens, the grandson of the industrial entrepreneur Werner von Siemens, established the foundation that bears his name. Every year the Foundation awards the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize to a composer, performer, or scholar who has made outstanding contributions to the world of music. Known as the "Nobel Prize of Music," the award has increasingly drawn international attention over the years and will be accompanied by a € 200,000 cash endowment in 2010.

In total the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation is awarding 2,3 million euros. In 2010, more than 80 projects from over 16 countries will receive grants – including, remarkably, 160 commissioned works. All of the projects have fostered contemporary music to a high degree. Commissioned works make up most of the grants; in 2010 they number, remarkably, 160. Together with concerts and events, the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation also takes a great interest in individual musicological publications and complete editions – for example the Webern and Schoenberg complete editions. Educationally valuable projects which give children and adolescents access to contemporary music are supported, as are academies and workshops for music students and young composers, conductors and instrumentalists. In addition, numerous festivals receive grants from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation over several years, in recognition of their contribution to contemporary music and with the aim of achieving sustainability. Particularly worthy of mention: the Lucerne Festival, which has been putting contemporary music in the limelight for many years, and the Donaueschinger Musiktage, which repeatedly justifies its reputation for being the centre and hub of contemporary music in Europe.

The Foundation's Board of Trustees includes the composers Beat Furrer, Helmut Lachenman, Wolfgang Rihm, and Peter Ruzicka, the musicologist Hermann Danuser (Humboldt University, Berlin), and the cultural managers Thomas von Angyan (Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna), Ilona Schmiel (Beethovenfest Bonn) and Nikos Tsouchlos (Megaron Athens). According to the Foundation's bylaws, the chairmanship of the Board of Supervisors is held by the president of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, and one of its members must be a descendent of the Siemens family.

To date there have been thirty-six recipients of the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. The laureates include Benjamin Britten, Olivier Messiaen, Mstislav Rostropovich, Witold Lutosławski, Luciano Berio, Hans Werner Henze, György Ligeti, Claudio Abbado, Maurizio Pollini, Helmut Lachenmann, György Kurtág, and Daniel Barenboim, to name only a few.