Industry News April-May 2023

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Obituaries

Sonia Jelinkova (1923-2023). Violinist and teacher, she taught at the University of Montreal. Her students included Jean-François Rivest, Olivier Thouin, Sylvie Harvey and Julie-Anne Derome.

Peter Herrndorf (1940-2023). He was the NAC’s visionary former President and CEO who served from 1999 to 2018, and was a founding Board Director of Luminato Festival Toronto from 2006, and Chair from 2018 to the present.

Awards/Competitions

Prix Goyer: Canadian Conductor Francis Choinière is the winner of the $125,000 Mécénat Musica Prix Goyer 2023-24 for Collaborative Emerging Artist, the biggest prize of its kind in Canada. Choinière was on the cover of La Scena Musicale’s November 2022 English edition.

Queen Elisabeth Competition. The 10th edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition for Voice will take place from May 21 to June 3. Canadian participants include: bass Vartan Gabrielian and sopranos Anna-Sophie Neher, Carole-Anne Roussel and Anne Elizabeth Sorbara.

2023 Juno Awards Winners

Vocal Jazz Album Of The Year: Featuring, Caity Gyorgy, La Reserve*The Orchard

Jazz Album Of The Year (Solo): Kinds of Love, Renee Rosnes, Smoke, Sessions*The Orchard

Jazz Album Of The Year (Group), Desert Bloom, Florian Hoefner Trio, Alma*Universal

Instrumental Album Of The Year: Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More, Esmerine, Constellation*Secretly

Classical Album Of The Year (Solo Artist): Fables, Philip Chiu, ATMA*Universal

Classical Album Of The Year (Large Ensemble):

Clara – Robert – Johannes: Lyrical Echoes, National Arts Centre Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Shelley, Analekta*F.A.B./The Orchard, & Viola Borealis, Orchestre de l’Agora, conducted by Nicolas Ellis, featuring Marina Thibeault ATMA*Universal

Classical Album Of The Year (Small Ensemble): Early Italian Cello Concertos, Elinor Frey and Rosa Barocca, conducted by Claude Lapalme, Analekta*F.A.B./The Orchard

Classical Composition Of The Year: Bestiary I & II, Bekah Simms, Centrediscs*Naxos

2023 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards (GGPAA) for Lifetime Artistic Achievement

Michel Marc Bouchard, O.C.—Playwright, screenwriter, librettist and teacher

Molly Johnson, O.C.—Singer–songwriter and humanitarian

James Kudelka, O.C.—Choreographer

Rosemarie Landry, C.M.—Soprano and voice teacher

k.d. lang, O.C.—Singer–songwriter and activist

John Kim Bell, O.C.—Indigenous entrepreneur and fundraiser, Canada’s first Indigenous conductor of a major symphony orchestra, received the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee—Actor, writer and comedian, received the National Arts Centre Award.

Appointments/Retirement

Conductor Alain Trudel has been appointed Artistic Director of the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières.

Conductor Jacques Lacombe has been appointed Artistic Director of Orchestre classique de Montréal, replacing the late Boris Brott.

Pianist and vocal coach Jennifer Szeto has been appointed New Director of the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, succeeding soprano Chantal Lambert who will retire at the end of June 2023 after more than 32 years at the helm of the Atelier lyrique.

Christiane Leblanc announced her retirement as Executive and Artistic Director of the CMIM and its Foundation in June following this year’s edition after being in the position since 2012.

Universal Music Canada names Julie Adam Executive Vice-President & General Manager.

Alexander Brose, former Executive Director and CEO of Juilliard, will succeed Dr. Peter Simon as President & CEO of The Royal Conservatory of Music in September 2024.

After 33 years at the helm of Music TORONTO, Artistic Producer Jennifer Taylor will step down at the end of the 2023-24 season. Cellist Roman Borys has been appointed Artistic Director Designate, effective immediately.

Conductor Roseline Blain has been chosen as the 2024 Guest Conductor for the National Youth Choir of Canada.

City Opera Vancouver’s Founding Artistic Director Dr. Charles Barber has retired after 17 years following the successful première of the company’s fifth commission: Chinatown.

Canadian Art Song Project (CASP) announced Liberté-Anne Lymberiou and Kendra Harder as the 2023 mentees in the Chung-Wai Chow and John Wright Art Song Mentorship Program for Composers. They will be working with mentors Dinuk Wijeratne and Cecilia Livingston, respectively.

The COC Ensemble Studio welcomes four new artists for its 2023-24 season: soprano Karoline Podolak, tenor Wesley Harrison, baritone Korin Thomas-Smith, and pianist Mattia Senesi. Returning members are sopranos Ariane Cossette and Charlotte Siegel, mezzo-sopranos Alex Hetherington and Queen Hezumuryango, and pianist Brian Cho.