Prix Opus
The 15th gala of the Prix Opus was held yesterday afternoon in the very beautiful Salle Bourgie of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. No less than 28 awards were given out during this celebration of concert music, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Conseil québécois de la musique.
Several musical performances were included throughout the gala. The audience heard the Zaldivar Trio, the Bozzini Quartet in an excerpt from an Ana Sokolovic work to be premiered in October, composer Jean-François Laporte in Rituel, an intriguing and rather poetic work for flying can, the Fanfarniente, harpist Valérie Milot in two movements from a piece by Glenn Buhr, as well as a baroque group with Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière, Olivier Brault, and actors Jean-François Gagnon and Carl Béchard.
A very moving homage was rendered to Yuli Turovsky, who left I Musici’s musical direction last May for health reasons. From the long list of winners, let’s mention the program The Art of François Couperin, a Clavecin en concert production, led by Luc Beauséjour, (“Concert of the year – medieval, Renaissance, baroque repertoires”), On n’est jamais trop classique, a youth program from the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (“Young audience production”) and pianist Louise Bessette, who celebrates in 2012 her first 30 years of career, nominated twice in the category “Disc of the year – modern, contemporary repertoires” who went home with the precious prize for her Serge Arcuri project.
Cloé Palacio-Quintin becomes “composer of the year” and baroque flutist Vincent Lauzer (who has worked with Matthias Maute and Sophie Larivière of Ensemble Caprice) “upcoming artist”. Julie Boulianne’s work on the international stage was as well saluted.
Congratulations to all!