Ten young Canadian classical musicians embarking on performing careers, from all over Canada, and playing a range of instruments, have been selected by CBC producers. The winner of the $25,000 award will be announced at Music in the Afternoon on March 7, 2024.
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Career Development Award Winners James Ehnes, Charles Richard-Hamelin, and Karina Gauvin, commissioned composer Zosha di Castri, and Music in the Afternoon concert performers Made in Canada and Jens Lindemann have all been nominated. The awards ceremony will be broadcast on May 16.
The WMCT is delighted to announce its 2021 Career Development award winner. The CDA is presented every three years to a young and exceptional Canadian musician embarking on a the WMCT, in partnership with CBC Radio Music and Société Radio-Canada/ICI Musique, and it is funded by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto Foundation.
The 2021 CDA winner is accordionist, Michael Bridge. Our audience will remember Michael from his brilliant Music in the Afternoon concert live-streamed on November 12 last year. Actually, this CDA award represents two firsts – the first accordionist, and the first awardee who has performed for us in advance of receiving the CDA! But with such a talented and versatile performer as Michael we eagerly look forward to hearing him again (in person!) in his CDA-winner recital in our 2022-23 Music in the Afternoon season.
Michael hails from Calgary and is now based in Toronto. He is currently in the final stages of his Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Toronto and on the cusp of a full-time performing career, though already he has toured every Canadian province, nearly half of the American states, and several regions in Europe and South America.
Hearty congratulations to Michael Bridge!
In 2015, the Conseil québécois de la musique named him the Discovery of the Year; in 2018 he was their Performer of the Year; for 2020, his ATMA CD of Chopin Ballades and Impromptus has been recognized as Album of the Year in its category.
The WMCT again congratulates the winner of its
2015 Career Development Award.
James Ehnes (1982) and Charles Richard-Hamelin (2015) will perform together for the first time, in a RCM Beethoven 250 Festival Livestream Concert from Koerner Hall on December 10. Tickets are available here.
The WMCT is delighted to announce the candidates and the jurors for its 2021 Career Development Award. The nine finalists are all exceptionally talented young musicians embarking on careers performing classical music. They were selected by CBC producers from across Canada. Each candidate has submitted audio-visual and written materials for review by a five-person jury and the announcement of the winner will be made at the Music in the Afternoon concert on March 4, 2021. The award is worth $25,000 and includes a performance in the WMCT’s concert series in 2022-23.
The Candidates
Kevin Ahfat, piano (Toronto, ON)
https://kevinahfat.com/about/
Michael Bridge, accordion (Calgary, AB)
http://www.michaelbridgemusic.com/about.html
Matthew Cairns, tenor (St. Catharine’s, ON)
https://www.coc.ca/COC-news1?EntryID=22098
Marcel D’Entremont, tenor (Merigomish, NS)
http://www.boulevart.ca/en/artistes/marceldentremont-tenor/
Simona Genga, mezzo-soprano (Woodbridge, ON)
http://www.simonarosegenga.com/about.html
“Meagan & Amy” – Amy Hillis, violin, and Meagan Milatz, piano (Regina, SK)
https://www.meaganandamy.com/
Jaden Izik-Dzurko, piano (Salmon Arm, BC)
https://www.jaedenizikdzurko.com/
Alice Lee, violin (Victoria, BC)
http://www.sheancompetition.com/strings/competitors/Alice-Lee.html
Anna-Sophie Neher, soprano (Gatineau, PQ)
http://www.annasophieneher.com/biography
The Jury
Each year the jury includes two CBC producers, Alison Howard (Toronto) and Guylaine Picard (Montreal), who is also the jury chair. Special thanks also to Alison Howard for collating all the candidates’ materials and sending them out to the jurors. Three other jurors were selected for the 2021 award based on their musical/instrument expertise, experience with adjudication and representation from across Canada. They are:
Mark Fewer: violinist, chamber musician, new music promoter, Artistic/Festival Director, Professor at the University of Toronto.
https://www.markfewer.com/mark-fewer-short-biography.html
Naomi Woo: conductor (opera & orchestra) pianist, opera coach, musicologist, Professor at the University of Manitoba.
https://wso.ca/about-us/the-orchestra/assistant-conductor/
Christina Haldane: soprano, international performer and educator. Professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
https://www.dal.ca/faculty/arts/school-of-performing-arts/faculty-staff/our-faculty/Christina_Haldane.html
Many thanks to all the candidates, the jurors, the CDA committee (Tamar Nelson, Holde Gerlach, Kathy Halliday and Alison Howard) as well as our very generous donors who have all contributed to making this significant and impactful award possible.
Annette Sanger
Chair, Career Development Award
Les Violons du Roy are among the many Québec-province musical presenters embarking on live performance series. Their first concert takes place September 25 in the Salle Raoul-Jobin in the old city of Québec, including Mozart’s Piano concerto no. 23, with soloist 2015 WMCT CDA winner Charles Richard-Hamelin.
Charles will also play a recital of the complete Chopin Preludes in the Palais Montcalm, on October19 and 20.
Karina Gauvin, WCMT 1994 Career Development Award Winner, appeared in the season-opening concert of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra on Friday September 11, in the Maison Symphonique in Place des Arts, singing Beethoven’s concert aria Ah! perfido. Bernard Labadie conducted 43 physically-distanced orchestra members. The hall has a capacity of 2,100: the provincial guidelines for indoor gatherings and all other Covid-19 protocols were observed. Ludwig van Montréal posted a full review.
The Canada Council’s 2019 Virginia Parker Prize has been awarded to cellist prodigy, Stéphane Tétreault. Among his numerous awards and honours was the second prize at the 10th anniversary WMCT Career Development Award competition.
The Parker Prize is given to “a musician…under the age of 32 who demonstrates outstanding… artistic excellence and who makes a valuable contribution to artistic life in Canada and internationally.” In 2018 the Parker Prize went to violinist Blake Pouliot, our current CDA winner!
2019-11-27
Ludwig van Montréal reports that the WMCT 2015 CDA winner has been honoured twice by the Quebec industry association ADISQ, for his Analekta recordings of the Chopin Piano Concertos with the OSM and Kent Nagano, and for his album of Beethoven Piano Sonatas 6, 7, and 8 with violinist Andrew Wan.
