The seven winners of the awards considered to be the most prestigious in Canada in the performing arts are announced Thursday. Since 1992, the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards have been given each year to Canadian artists who have distinguished themselves at home and around the world.
At the top of this list this year is Quebec playwright and screenwriter Michel Marc Bouchard, whose plays have been performed around the world and translated into twenty languages. Some of them have also been brilliantly adapted for the cinema, in particular The rolls (1996)The story of the goose (1998), and, more recently, Tom at the farm (2013), by Xavier Dolan.
Jazz singer and singer-songwriter Molly Johnson, born in Toronto in 1959, is also recognized this year for her body of work. In recent years, she has won over both Canadian and European audiences by performing both original pieces and well-known jazz standards. She is also artistic director and founder of the Kensington Market Jazz Festival, a Toronto event through which she has helped to promote many performers over the years.
Two other singers are among the winners of these prestigious prizes, each of which comes with a $25,000 grant offered by the Canada Council for the Arts. This is the case of singer-songwriter and country singer Kathryn Dawn Lang, known for her mezzo-soprano voice as well as her activism for the rights of the LGBT community. Soprano and singing teacher Rosemarie Landry is also acclaimed for her interpretation of French lyrical art, which has led her to sing all over the world in recitals, notably in concerts, on the radio and on television.
Choreographer and dancer James Kudelka is also among the winners this year. Over the past few decades, he has, among other things, produced new versions of certain classics, such as Swan Lake And Nutcracker, in addition to creating several original choreographies for troupes based both in Canada and abroad.
The Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation is also presenting a special award to John Kim Bell for his voluntary contribution to this artistic field. The activist and entrepreneur, who was Canada’s first aboriginal symphony orchestra conductor, notably founded the organization Indspire and the awards of the same name, which recognize the achievements of aboriginal Canadians.
The National Arts Center Prize is finally awarded to comedian, writer and humorist Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, who rose to fame in 2011 for his role as patriarch in the play Kim’s Conveniencewhich was subsequently the subject of a very popular adaptation for television, from 2016 to 2021.
The winners will be celebrated at a gala on May 27 at the National Arts Center in Ottawa.