The Prix d’Europe: Supporting the Next Generation

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It is well known that high-level musical education is expensive—not to mention training abroad, which is often a crucial step as young musicians expand their professional horizons, immerse themselves in culture, and study in major institutions with high-profile teachers.

Each year, in June, promising young musicians on all instruments are offered the chance to pursue their studies at a music school outside of Quebec, thanks to scholarships offered by the Prix d’Europe.

This year, instrumentalists between the ages of 18 and 30 in the four main categories—winds, strings, keyboards and voice—will compete for various prizes from June 4 to 10 at the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur, with the top prize worth $50,000. The $10,000 Prix d’Europe Prize for Composition, supported by the Fondation du Père Lindsay, will be in its seventh year and is open to composers between the ages of 18 and 35.

The Académie de musique du Québec, which founded the competition in 1911, aims to “promote a taste for music, to increase the level of musical education, and to regularize it: by establishing programs, instituting examinations and awarding diplomas and attestations in all musical disciplines.”
Many now well-established musicians attest to the importance of the competition, as it aims to assist in the development of young musicians. Some such rising stars have included Valérie Milot (harp, Prix d’Europe 2008), Charles Richard-Hamelin (piano, Prix d’Europe 2011), Bruce Liu (piano, Prix d’Europe 2015), Hugo Laporte (voice, Prix Québecor 2017), Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy (cello, Prix d’Europe 2018) and, more recently, Carole-Anne Roussel (voice, Prix d’Europe 2021) and Rose Naggar-Tremblay (voice, Prix Pierre Mantha and Prix John Newmark 2022).

The winners of this 111th edition of the competition will be announced at the gala concert on June 10, where they will perform. As is customary, last year’s grand-prize winner, violist Wilhelm Magner, will also perform.

The first-prize winner will join the Orchestre symphonique des jeunes, under the baton of Louis Lavigueur, for a concert in the 2023-24 season, and will receive an additional $1,000 scholarship.
A benefit concert, which supports a portion of the scholarships, and ensures the survival of the competition, will take place on March 15 at the Chapelle du Bon-Pasteur. Former Prix d’Europe winners Violaine Melançon, Jeanne Amièle and Dominique Beauséjour-Ostiguy will play Trio No. 2 in G minor, Op. 26 by Antonín Dvořák and Trio in A minor by Maurice Ravel.