{"id":86984,"date":"2022-11-25T14:36:48","date_gmt":"2022-11-25T19:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=86984"},"modified":"2022-11-25T14:36:48","modified_gmt":"2022-11-25T19:36:48","slug":"scoop-orchestral-conductor-karl-hirzer-receives-2022-heinz-unger-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2022\/11\/25\/scoop-orchestral-conductor-karl-hirzer-receives-2022-heinz-unger-award\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP | Orchestral Conductor Karl Hirzer Receives 2022 Heinz Unger Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_86985\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-86985\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-86985\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Karl-Hirzer-award.jpg\" alt=\"Conductor Karl Hirzer (Photos courtesy of the Ontario Arts Council)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-86985\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Conductor Karl Hirzer (Photos courtesy of the Ontario Arts Council)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Karl Hirzer, the associate conductor of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, has won the Heinz Unger Award. Administered by the Ontario Arts Council, the biennial award is presented to Canada\u2019s most promising emerging conductor.<\/p>\n<p>The Heinz Unger Award is privately funded, and grants Hirzer an $8,000 award that he\u2019ll receive November 26 at the Calgary Philharmonic\u2019s concert. He\u2019ll be conducting a program of dance themed works, including Stravinsky\u2019s <em>The Firebird<\/em> (featuring dancers from the Alberta Ballet School), and works by Manuel de Falla, Maurice Ravel and Erik Satie.<\/p>\n<h3>Karl Hirzer<\/h3>\n<p>A native of New Westminster, BC, Karl was composing at age four, and he earned his ARCT at age 17. Karl originally trained as a pianist. After earning a bachelor\u2019s degree in performance at the University of Victoria, he went on to his master\u2019s degree at McGill University. He still performs as a pianist, and has composed his first album of music that is set for release in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Karl conducted his first ensemble as an undergrad, and has never looked back.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He\u2019s associate conductor of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, after serving as resident conductor;<\/li>\n<li>He served previously as assistant conductor for the National Academy Orchestra of Canada and the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble;<\/li>\n<li>He has led orchestras across Canada, including the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Symphony Nova Scotia, along with the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana and the Gstaad Festival Orchestra;<\/li>\n<li>He is a regular guest conductor with the contemporary group Land\u2019s End Ensemble.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He\u2019s as dedicated to presenting new works as he is to the beloved older repertoire. Karl Hirzer conducts the Calgary Phil in Johann Strauss\u2019 <em>Overture to Die Fledermaus<\/em>:<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i9-N-t7-pWM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>During the COVID pandemic lockdowns, he created a video series about classical music for children titled <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=y4Hi89nuUeU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">An Orchestra Adventure<\/a><\/em>. It\u2019s been broadcast on PBS in North America, as well as on YouTube, where the series has gotten more than 100K views.<\/p>\n<h3>What the jurors said&#8230;<\/h3>\n<p>This year\u2019s award jury consisted of Edmond Agopian (Edmonton), Catherine Dallaire (Qu\u00e9bec City) and Martin MacDonald (Toronto). They issued a statement about their choice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKarl has a unique and compelling vision to make classical music relevant to new audiences. He is doing outstanding work with contemporary music, and he has a very engaging conducting style. He has clear potential for an excellent career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Previous Heinz Unger Award laureates include Earl Lee (2017), Nicolas Ellis (2015) and Martin MacDonald (2013).<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"western\"><em><b>#LUDWIGVAN<\/b><\/em><\/h3>\n<p class=\"western\"><em>Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"western\"><em>Sign up for the Ludwig van Daily \u2014 classical music and opera in five minutes or less <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/ludwig-van.us9.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=4f785cb3f9058f2393ccad035&amp;id=57cdb68eac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>HERE<\/em><\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Karl Hirzer, associate conductor of the Calgary Philharmonic, has won the Heinz Unger Award, presented to Canada\u2019s most promising emerging conductor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":86985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[39907,5,875,39],"tags":[14610,40388,40387],"yst_prominent_words":[14511,16055,7538,14596,6715,6807,9426,19011,19004,6613,6981],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/11\/Karl-Hirzer-award.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-mCY","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86984"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86984"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86988,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86984\/revisions\/86988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86984"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=86984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}