SOCAN Foundation awards almost $125,000 in total to 36 young music creators

The SOCAN Foundation has awarded almost $125,000 in total to 36 young music creators across Canada in three separate competitions

“These awards recognize the next generation of emerging songwriters, composers, and screen composers from across the country.” said Charlie Wall-Andrews, Executive Director of the SOCAN Foundation. “The awards are also designed to celebrate and cultivate these emerging music creators as they expand their careers.”

The 2019 edition of the SOCAN Foundation Young Canadian Songwriter Awards, presented in partnership with Sirius XM Canada Inc., has awarded a total of $25,000 (five awards of $5,000 each) to songwriters 21 years of age and under, across Canada.

The award recipients are:

• Mahmoud Ismail (Mah Moud), for the song “Sigada”;
• Lou-Adriane Cassidy, for the song “Poussière”;
• Emily Gifford (GRAE), for the song “Your Hands”;
• Kasia Thorlakson (Kasia Leigh), for the song “Love Song #1”; and
• Arianna Ohlsson for the song “Heaven.”

The competition was evaluated by a jury of esteemed Canadian songwriters comprised of Basia Bulat, Jocelyn Bruno (Dramatik), Tarun Nayar (Delhi 2 Dublin), Frank Kadillac (Neon Dreams), and Fanny Bloom.

The annual SOCAN Foundation Awards for Emerging Audio-Visual Composers are designed to recognize Canadian screen composers who are 30 years of age or younger, for original music themes or scores created exclusively for to support TV programs, films, etc. A total of $27,000 in prizes was awarded to the winners in four categories in the 2019 edition. Jury panel members were well-known Canadian screen composers Nathalie Bonin, Schaun Tozer, and Laurel MacDonald.

The winners are:

Best Original Score — Animated
1^st Prize: Yao Wang, for Brides of the Well
2^nd Prize: Brandon Liew, for Starting Point
3^rd Prize: Stéphanie Hamelin Tomala, for Orboros

Best Original Score — Fiction
1^st Prize: Stéphanie Hamelin Tomala, for Final Curtain
2^nd Prize: Virginia de Vasconcelos Kilbertus, for Astronaut
3^rd Prize: Evan Macdonald, for Nothing Has Changed

Best Original Score — Non-Fiction
1^st Prize: Evan MacDonald, for Canadian Immigration Matters
2^nd Prize: Nick Grimshaw, for Karo
3^rd Prize: Shaun Chasin, for The Queen’s New Clothes

Best Original Theme (opening or closing)
1^st Prize: Isaias Garcia, for In the Mind’s Eye
2^nd Prize: Spencer Creaghan, for Wife Me
3^rd Prize: Joey Reda, for A Vulture’s Story

The SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers are designed to recognize Canadian composers 30 years of age or under, for original concert-music works in six categories. Awards totalling $42,750 were presented to the finalists, and the jury panel members were composers Elisabeth Raum, Dinuk Wijeratne, and Alissa Cheung.

The 2019 winners are:

John Weinzweig Grand Prize for the best overall work
Eugene Astapov, for Hear My Voice

The Godfrey Ridout Awards, for works of any number of voices with or without instrumentation and/or electroacoustics.
1^st Prize: Roydon Tse, for And the Ocean was Gone
2^nd Prize: Francis Choiniere, for A Clear Midnight
3^rd Prize: Tristan Zaba, for Encroachment
Young Composer Prize: Leo Purich, for Flexible Fugue for Choir (SATB) and Piano

The Hugh Le Caine Awards, for live or recorded electroacoustics, where the intended performance is, at least in part, through loudspeakers. Works in this category may be multi-media and may include acoustic instrument(s) or voice(s), live or recorded. The principal element in the work must be electroacoustic.
1^st Prize: Carmen Vanderveken, for At Play: 3 short pieces
2^nd Prize: Xavier Madore, for Les loges de la suite
3^rd Prize: Bekah Simms, for Skinned & Skinscape
Young Composer Prize: Kai Kubota-Enright, for Isaac

The Pierre Mercure Awards, for solo or duet compositions, with or without voices and/or electroacoustics.
1^st Prize: Stephanie Orlando, for Scatterbrain
2^nd Prize: Alison Yun-Fei Jiang, for Isles
3^rd Prize: Liam Ritz, for Drei Klavierstücke
Young Composer Prize (ex æquo): Leonid Nediak, for Fantasie No. 2, and Thomas Cardoso-Grant, for artifact ii

The Serge Garant Awards, for compositions requiring a minimum of three performers to a maximum of 12 performers with or without voice and/or electroacoustics.
1^st Prize: Eugene Astapov, for Hear My Voice
2^nd Prize: Nolan Hildebrand, for HEATDEATH
3^rd Prize: Corie Rose Soumah, for Reflet
Young Composer Prize: Jules Bastin-Fontaine, for Trio en hommage à Bruckner

The Sir Ernest MacMillan Awards, for compositions requiring no fewer than 13 performers up to a full symphony orchestra, which may include vocal participation and may be scored to include electroacoustics.
1^st Prize: Luis Ramirez, for Chido
2^nd Prize: William Kraushaar, for APOCALYPSIS 15
3^rd Prize: Jared Miller, for Ricochet – Reverb – Repeat
Young Composer Prize: Leo Purich, for Variations and Fugue on Mozart

Thanks to a partnership with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, three young composers will have an opportunity to hear their works in concert. These works will be “Variations and Fugue on Mozart,” by Leo Purich; “Chiaroscuro,” by Dan Jeremy Reyes; and “Prairie Frost,” by Stuart Beatch. One of these artists will also be offered a residence.

The SOCAN Foundation warmly congratulates all of these young winners!