Bourgie Hall hosted the Opus Awards gala on Sunday, awarded annually by the Conseil québécois de la musique (CQM). An edition marked by a return to post-pandemic normalcy.
The last public gala took place at the same location on January 19, 2020, two days before the first case of COVID-19 in North America was detected. The two subsequent editions had only been the subject of a webcast. Sunday’s event was therefore a reunion for the artisans of concert music in Quebec.
Comedian Jocelyn Lebeau, who hosted the 2019 gala, was back for the 26e annual meeting, which this year rewarded 31 winners, including three Mentions of the CQM – Concerts and creations webcast, having distinguished themselves during the 2021-2022 season.
Pianists featured prominently on the honor roll. In the first place Charles Richard-Hamelin, already a subscriber of Opus, who won the prize for Concert of the Year – Classical, Romantic, Post-Romantic, Impressionist Music for the complete sonatas for violin and piano by Schumann given with his colleague Andrew Wan. The two musicians also won an award for the album of the year in the same stylistic category for the latest disc of their complete Beethoven, released last year by Analekta.
A newcomer to Opus, Montreal pianist Bruce Liu, winner of the renowned Chopin Competition in Warsaw in October 2021, left with the prizes for Performer of the Year and Outreach Abroad, along with scholarships in the respective amounts of $5000 and $2000.
Still on piano, Russian Daniil Trifonov’s performance with the Orchester symphonique de Montréal and its conductor Rafael Payare, which had been marked by the presence of Ukrainian protesters, won the jury’s favor for the Concert of the Year – Repertoires category. multiple.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Caroline Lizotte was named Composer of the Year.
The harp was also honored with the Composer of the Year award given to harpist Caroline Lizotte, and that of Album of the Year – Modern, Contemporary Music to her former student Valérie Milot and cellist Stéphane Tétreault for their record Transfiguration (ATMA).
Les Violons du Roy are also among the crowned doubles for the Concert of the Year – Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music (show Zephyr with Flip Fabrique) and the Opus Québec prize for their art film Carnival of the Animals.
In the Baroque sphere, let’s also note the Album of the Year for Preludes and Solitudes (ATMA) by violinist Marie Nadeau-Tremblay and the Artistic Director of the Year award to Matthias Maute, at the head of Ensemble Caprice and Ensemble ArtChoral (formerly Ensemble vocal Arts-Québec). Active in several baroque orchestras in Quebec, violinist Guillaume Villeneuve was elected Discovery of the Year.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
The prize for Concert of the Year – Traditional Quebec Music was awarded to La Nef and that of Concert of the Year – Jazz to Laura Anglade and Sam Kirmayer.
Speaking of Les Violons du Roy, their new first guest conductor, Nicolas Ellis, received the Event of the Year award for the Earth Gala for children, given with his Orchester de l’Agora last June.
In more recent directories, prizes have also been awarded to Quatuor Molinari, Sixtrum Percussion and Quasar (which also had a mention for the webcast of Heats), in addition to the Tribute Prize for Pauline Vaillancourt, who recently handed over to singer Marie-Annick Béliveau the direction of Chants Libres, an organization dedicated to contemporary lyrical creation that she had founded in 1990.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
The Tribute Prize was awarded to Pauline Vaillancourt for her career as a lyrical and contemporary artist, founder and outgoing artistic director of the Chants Libres creation company.
On the jazz side, singer Laura Anglade, guitarist Sam Kirmayer, composer Yves Léveillé and saxophonist Benjamin Deschamps were honored, while La Nef and Le Vent du Nord were rewarded in the categories dedicated to World Music and traditional Quebec music.
Throughout the gala, spectators at Bourgie Hall had the chance to hear performances by the musicians of Les Boréades and the gypsy jazz ensemble Des Sourcils, in addition to a performance by mezzo-soprano Marie- Annick Beliveau.