TORONTO, June 19, 2013 /CNW/ - The SOCAN Foundation today announced 14 recipients of the 22nd Annual SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers.
This year's competition attracted 184 entries, awarding $29,250 to 14 prizewinners. "This year is particularly special since, for the first time, a female composer, Marielle Groven, was the sole winner of The John Weinzweig Grand Prize," said Rick MacMillan, Manager, SOCAN Foundation.
The Annual SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers recognize Canadian composers 30 years of age and under for specific musical works in five categories of concert music. The competition was judged anonymously, by a jury of three prominent composers: Dr. Ka Nin Chan of Toronto (professor of theory and composition in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music and a two-time Juno Award winner), Dr. T. Patrick Carrabré (professor in the School of Music at Brandon University in Brandon, MB, where he has served terms as Dean of music and Vice-President Academic and Research), and Gilles Gobeil (professor of Music Technology at Collège de Drummondville, QC, and winner of more than 20 national and international awards for his electroacoustic music).
"What made Groven's work unique and especially attracted us," says Carrabré, "is the uniqueness of her sound, the wonderful use of instrumental techniques that makes the violin sound almost like an ondes Martenot. She is clearly very creative."
The John Weinzweig Grand Prize celebrates the best overall work submitted in the competition, and is valued at $3,000. Groven's work, titled Animaris Currens Ventosa, was also recognized with the $3,000 first prize in the competition's Serge Garant Awards category. Also winning two $3,000 top prizes is Wei-Chieh Lin, who captured first prizes in the Sir Ernest MacMillan Awards category for Tracing the Shadows of Broken Time and in the Pierre Mercure Awards category for A glimpse of trembling refraction.
Other winners of $3,000 first prizes were Marie-Claire Saindon for Øst for vinden and Anna Pidgorna for On the Eve of Ivan Kupalo (shared, in the Godfrey Ridout Awards), and James O'Callaghan for Objects-Interiors (Hugh Le Caine Awards).
Additional Award recipients include: Ashkan Behzadi (second prize) and Haralabos Stafylakis (third prize) in the Sir Ernest MacMillan Awards; Taylor Brook and Alec Hall (shared second prize) and Matthew Ricketts (third prize) in the Serge Garant Awards; Philippe Béland (second prize) and Anna Pidgorna (third prize) in the Pierre Mercure Awards; Patrick Murray (second prize) and Haralabos Stafylakis (third prize) in the Godfrey Ridout Awards; and Stephen Spencer (second prize) and Guillaume Côte (third prize) in the Hugh Le Caine Awards. (Recipients' bios and awards categories attached.)
About the SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers
The SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers is open to Canadian citizens 30 years of age and under.
About SOCAN Foundation
Founded in 1992, SOCAN Foundation is dedicated to fostering musical creativity and promoting a better understanding of the role of music creators in today's society. The Foundation is an independent organization guided by its own board of directors. The board, which consists of composers, songwriters and music publishers, reflects concert music and popular music genres as well as the geographic and linguistic regions of Canada. It is closely aligned to the interests of the members of SOCAN - the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.
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SOURCE: SOCAN Foundation
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