Toronto’s Gryphon Trio is about to be $30,000 richer, following today’s Canada Council for the Arts announcement that they have been awarded the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.
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The announcement comes as pianist Jamie Parker, cellist Roman Borys and violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon prepare to celebrate the Gryphon Trio’s 20th anniversary season. In honour of their 10-year residency with the chamber music presenter, the award will be officially handed over to the trio at its Dec. 5 Music Toronto recital at the Jane Mallett Theatre.
The Gryphon Trio is far more than an ordinary chamber-music ensemble, initiating a number of educational and multi-disciplinary initiatives over the past 20 years. The ensemble has made several excellent recordings, and all three members teach at the University of Toronto.
“Members of the Gryphon Trio are outstanding musicians in their own right, but together they achieve something greater than the sum of the parts,” said Robert Sirman, director and CEO Canada Council for the Arts, in a press release. “The Canada Council applauds their commitment to encouraging emerging and established composers and fostering a new generation of music lovers.”
The Gryphon Trio was nominated by St Lawrence String Quartet violist Lesley Robertson, and chosen from a total of 27 nominees by a committee of peers made up of Torontonian Brainerd Blyden-Taylor, Montrealer Louise Forand-Samson and Winnipegger Earl Stafford.
The award runs through a four-year cycle that alternates dance, theatre, dance and music. It was funded by the late Toronto philanthropist Walter Carsen, who was especially interested in the development of dance in this country. His $1.1 million capital donation is administered by the Canada Council.
The prize amount varies according to investment income. For several years, the prize was worth $50,000, but last year the previous winner — dancer/choreographer Menaka Thakkar — received $30,000, as well.
Other music winners include Toronto flutist and New Music Concerts founding artistic director Robert Aitken and composer R. Murray Schafer.
You can find out more about the Gryphon Trio here.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
