Meet the Azrieli Music Project (AMP), Canada’s newest composition prize, and its inaugural winner: Toronto-based composer Brian Current.
Current has established himself as one of Canada’s leading new composers. At just 42 years old, he has won a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barlow Prize for Orchestral Music (USA), and the Italian Premio Fedora for Chamber Opera. Most recently he was awarded a Juno Award or his critically lauded opera “Airline Icarus”.
For a composer with a growing international career, a private benefactor with deep pockets like the Azrieli Foundation can go a long way. It means they can concentrate on the herculean task of writing quality music, without wondering how they will pay the mortgage, feed the kids; “all those things I always worry about,” Current said.
At a cool $50,000, the AMP Prize represents one of Canada’s largest music awards for composers. The competition was launched by Sharon Azrieli, to expand the notion of what Jewish music means in Canada.
Conductor and Jury Member Boris Brott explains in a video interview, “the composition of orchestral and instrumental music was discouraged by the Jewish religion for hundreds, if not thousands of years. You don’t have the same amounts of literature as you do with Christian-based works. It’s time to redress the balance.”
Unlike many prizes, the Azrieli Commissioning Competition challenges orchestral composers of all faiths, backgrounds and affiliations to engage creatively and critically with the meaning of “Jewish Music.” It’s open to composers of any age and will lead to the creation of a new 15 to 25-minute orchestral work.
The Azrieli Music Project jury includes conductor Boris Brott; composer Aaron Jay Kernis; musicologist Neil Levin; conductor and composer Steven Mercurio; and composer Ana Sokolović.
“I would like to offer my personal congratulations to Brian for both his exceptional talent as a composer, as well as the fascinating proposal,” Azrieli Music Project founder Dr. Sharon Azrieli Perez stated in a press release. “We were impressed with the variety of topics considered and the creative approaches the applicants employed in their attempts to interpret the musical and philosophical questions at the heart of the Azrieli Commissioning Competition.”
Current states he is “hugely grateful to be chosen” and looks forward to doing his best to create something lasting that stands up to the vision of the prize.”The award represents a beautiful example of patronage from the private sector that will go on to inspire in Canada and elsewhere.”
Based on the 12th-century text called the Zohar (recommended to Current by long-time friend and collaborator Anton Piatigorsky), it represents a journey through a mystical progression through seven ecstatic states.
“When I was developing the idea for the music, the award appeared and the stars aligned. I don’t think I was chosen out of a pool; I feel more like I was just a lucky guy at the right time at the right place,” Current said.
Titled “The Seven Heavenly Halls,” the winning piece will be performed by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal with Maestro Kent Nagano at The Azrieli Music Project Gala Concert at the Maisonsymphonique de Montréal on October 19, 2016. It will also be part of an even larger project loosely inspired by Dante’s Paradiso called “River of Light” slated for completion in 2018.
Current said financial support for such a large project is never an easy task, but the Azrieli prize is a major step forward. To help fund the remainder of the project, Current is seeking support from a crowdsourcing initiative.
For those looking to donate to the project, readers are encouraged to visit the official website here.
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