April 2024 Newsletter 68
April 2024 Newsletter 68 Read More »
Career Development Award
Midori Marsh, 2024 Career Development Award Winner
At the March 7 Music in the Afternoon concert, Annette Sanger, CDA Committee Chair, presented this year’s award to Midori Marsh, soprano.
In her thanks for the award, Midori exhorted us all to sing, in and out of the shower, as the best way to personal pleasure, and community strength and unity!
Midori Marsh is an American-Canadian soprano, from Cleveland, Ohio. She received her Bachelor of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2017 and her Master of Music in Opera at the University of Toronto in 2020. In the fall of 2019, she took home both first prize and the audience choice award at the Canadian Opera Company’s (COC’s) Centre Stage competition, and recently completed her third year with the COC’s young artist ensemble.
A “polished and poised performer” with “a truly gorgeous, expressive sound,” Midori is a known quantity in the Canadian opera scene, performing with Tapestry Opera, Against the Grain Theatre, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the NAC Orchestra, and more. While at the COC, Midori was seen as Nella in Gianni Schicchi, the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem, Annina in La traviata, Papagena in The Magic Flute, and Frasquita in Carmen.
Midori Marsh, 2024 Career Development Award Winner Read More »
The 2024 Career Development Award Competition
Eight 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.
Read More…
The 2024 Career Development Award Competition Read More »
2021 Juno nominations include familiar names
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.
2021 Juno nominations include familiar names Read More »
Michael Bridge : 2021 Career Development Award Winner
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!
Michael Bridge : 2021 Career Development Award Winner Read More »
Charles Richard-Hamelin awarded another prize
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.
Charles Richard-Hamelin awarded another prize Read More »
Two WMCT Career Development Award Winners in Virtual Concert
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.
Two WMCT Career Development Award Winners in Virtual Concert Read More »
2021 Career Development Award | Finalists announced
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
2021 Career Development Award | Finalists announced Read More »
Charles Richard-Hamelin opens the season
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.
Charles Richard-Hamelin opens the season Read More »