News Releases - 2002
Brueggergosman, Da Costa and Goodyear win Canada Council music prizes
Ottawa, 01 October 2002 (International Music Day) - Soprano Measha Brueggergosman, violinist Alexandre Da Costa and pianist Stewart Goodyear are the winners of three Canada Council for the Arts prizes aimed at young Canadian musicians.
Ms. Brueggergosman, of Fredericton, New Brunswick, was selected as the first-ever recipient of the $5,000 Bernard Diamant Prize, which offers professional Canadian classical singers under age 35 an opportunity to pursue their career through further studies. The prize was created in 2001 with funds from a generous bequest to the Canada Council by the late Bernard Diamant, as well as through memorial gifts from a number of his friends, colleagues and former voice students. It is awarded in addition to a regular Canada Council grant to an outstanding young classical singer in the Council’s annual competition for Grants to Professional Musicians, classical music category. The Canada Council will present the Bernard Diamant Prize to Ms. Brueggergosman on Monday, October 7 at the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra’s reception following her performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
Mr. Da Costa, of Outremont, Quebec, will receive the 2002 Sylva Gelber Foundation Award, established in 1981 by Sylva Gelber of Ottawa. The $15,000 award is given annually to the most talented candidate under the age of 30 in the Council’s Grants to Professional Musicians competition, classical music category. Past winners of the award have included David Jalbert, Jasper Wood, Jon Kimura Parker, Marc-André Hamelin, Stewart Goodyear and Jessica Linnebach. The Canada Council will present the Sylva Gelber Foundation Award to Mr. Da Costa on a date and location to be determined.
Mr. Goodyear, a native of Toronto now living in New York City, will receive the 2002 Virginia Parker Prize, worth $25,000. Originally known as the Virginia P. Moore Prize, the Virginia Parker Prize was established in 1982 by the late Colonel T. A. G. Moore and his wife, Virginia P. Moore. Moved by her profound love of music and the recognition that talented young musicians need an award to help them take a leap forward in their careers, the late Mrs. Moore established the prize for young performers of classical music who demonstrate outstanding talent and musicianship. The Canada Council will present the Virginia Parker Prize to Mr. Goodyear on the evening of Wednesday, October 30, at his performance with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall.
The winners of the three prizes were selected by an independent peer assessment committee consisting of conductor Louis Lavigueur (Montreal), violinist David Stewart (Ottawa), trumpeter/pianist Guy Few (Elora, ON), and singer Sung-Ha Shin-Bouey (Charlottetown).
Measha Brueggergosman
A native of Fredericton, New Brunswick, 25-year-old Measha Brueggergosman is one of Canada’s fastest-rising classical singing stars. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Toronto in 1999 and her Masters degree in concert repertoire and oratorio from the Hochschule für Musik Augsberg in Germany, where she is currently pursuing predoctoral studies under internationally-known Canadian soprano Edith Wiens.
Ms. Brueggergosman started her 2002/03 season at the Roy Thomson Hall re-opening Gala with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis. During the past year, she made her Carnegie Hall debut under the auspices of the George London Foundation; made her recital debut at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto; performed inVerdi’s Requiem with Helmuth Rilling as part of the International Beethoven Festival Bonn, as well as in Stuttgart and Berlin; made her debut at Cincinnati Opera with roles in Dead Man Walking and Elektra; performed in Krzysztof Penderecki’s Credo, conducted by Penderecki, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; in Franz Schmidt’s The Book with Seven Seals together with Ben Heppner in Toronto; a gala concert with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under the baton of Pinchas Zukerman in Ottawa; and in "Live from Rideau Hall", a gala concert with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under Mario Bernardi. Ms. Brueggergosman has been honoured to sing for the British Royal Family and for Nelson Mandela.
In addition to appearances across Canada, in the United States and in Germany, she played the title role in the Edmonton Opera production of Beatrice Chancy and was nominated for a Gemini Award for her performance in the CBC Television production of the same opera. In June, competing with finalists from Canada, the United States, South Korea and Turkey, she won the $25,000 first prize at the Jeunesses Musicales International Music Competition in Montreal.
Alexandre Da Costa
Alexandre Da Costa was born in Montreal in 1979. At an early age, he showed an unusual interest in violin and piano, and he gave his first concerts at age nine, excelling with equal virtuosity and musicality on both instruments to win recognition as a true musical prodigy. He went on to win several first prizes in the Canadian Music Competitions, which led him to embark on an international career in music through recitals and concerts in Canada and the United States.
In 1998, at age 18, he earned his Masters degree in violin and a first at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec, where he studied with Johanne Arel, and an honours B.A. in piano performance in the music department at Université de Montréal. That same year, he recorded his first compact disc of solo violin and piano. From 1998 à 2001, he studied with the legendary violin teacher Zakhar Bron at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid. In 2001-2002, he studied with Christian Altenburger in Vienna, where he is also developing his international career.
Over the past 10 years, Mr. Da Costa has given more than 500 recitals and concerts as a soloist in Quebec and the rest of Canada, the United States, Mexico, France, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal, Japan and Taiwan. In 2002, he was guest soloist with the Arad Symphony Orchestra in Romania, the symphony orchestras of Malaga and Cordoba in Spain, and the Westfalen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Oberberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany. He is also participating in the "Masters of Tomorrow" series in Germany and the "New soloists of the 20th Century" series in Spain, broadcast by Radio-Classique International, and is releasing his third CD, España.
Stewart Goodyear
Known for imagination, a graceful, elegant style and exquisite technique, 24-year-old pianist Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished young artist whose career is clearly on the rise. A native of Toronto, Mr. Goodyear holds a Masters degree from the Julliard School of Music where he studied with Oxana Yablonskaya. He also studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman and Claude Frank.
Mr. Goodyear has toured the United States with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and has performed with numerous orchestras in Canada and the United States, including the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony. Following his New York debut with Emmanuel Krivine and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in 1999, he was the guest soloist on the final Japan tour of the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra conducted by Gerard Schwarz. In the past year, he has performed in Washington and San Francisco, as well as with the Philadelphia, Toronto, Dallas and Oregon symphony orchestras and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.
In addition to his talents as a pianist, Mr. Goodyear is a composer and frequently performs his own works, including his solo piano work Variations on ‘Eleanor Rigby’, which premiered at Lincoln Centre in New York in August 2000, and his Piano Sonata, both of which are highly acclaimed by critics and audiences. He received the Canada Council for the Arts’ Sylva Gelber Foundation Award in 1999.
General information
The Canada Council for the Arts, in addition to its principal role of promoting and fostering the arts in Canada, administers and awards nearly 100 prizes and fellowships in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences and engineering. Among these are the Killam Prizes, the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes, the Jules Léger Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts and the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.
For more information about these prizes, including nomination procedures, contact Carol Bream, Director of Endowments and Prizes, at (613) 566-4414 or 1-800-263-5588, ext. 5041. E-mail: carol.bream@canadacouncil.ca; or Janet Riedel, Endowments and Prizes Officer, at (613) 566-4414, or 1-800- 263-5588, ext. 4116. E-mail: janet.riedel@canadacouncil.ca.
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