Created in 2014 by Sharon Azrieli CQ, DMus for the Azrieli Foundation, the Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) offer opportunities for the discovery, creation, performance and celebration of excellence in music composition.
Open to the international music community, AMP accepts nominations for works from individuals and institutions of all ages, backgrounds, nationalities, faiths and genders.
The Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music is awarded to a composer who has written the best new undiscovered work of Jewish music. Eligible works may have been premiered within seventy-five (75) years of the award date, but must not have a significant performance history, and must not have been commercially recorded.
The Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music is awarded to encourage composers to creatively and critically engage with the question “What is Jewish music?” This prize is given to the composer who proposes a response to this question in the shape of a musical work that displays the utmost creativity, artistry, technical mastery and professional expertise.
The Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music is offered to a Canadian composer to create a new musical work that creatively and critically engages with the complexities of composing concert music in Canada today. The prize is given to the composer who proposes a response to this challenge that displays the utmost creativity, artistry, technical mastery and professional expertise.
The Azrieli Commission for International Music invites composers worldwide to creatively engage with the richness of humanity’s diverse cultural heritage with the goal of fostering greater intercultural understanding through music. The Prize is awarded to the composer whose proposal displays the utmost artistry, technical mastery and professional expertise in response to the Prize theme.
Transforming the future of music composition
Our 10th Anniversary! NYC Debut (Orchestra of St. Luke’s) 10th Anniversary CD Box set released/1st Commission for International Music awarded
The Prizes are expanded to offer The Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music
London, UK Debut (Philharmonia Orchestra)
1st JUNO Award for New Jewish Music Vol. 3 (Analekta)
1st Commission for Canadian Music/AMP Performance Fund launched
1st International Concert (Czech National Symphony Orchestra)
AMP’s 1st album – New Jewish Music Vol. 1 – released by Analekta
1st Gala Concert (Orchestra symphonique de Montréal/Kent Nagano)
The Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) are created by Sharon Azrieli for the Azrieli Foundation
Since 1989, the Azrieli Foundation has dedicated its resources to improving lives through education, research, healthcare and the arts. Thirty-five years later, the Foundation—the largest non-corporate foundation in Canada—continues its tradition of philanthropic innovation.
Four outstanding composers from around the globe are the 2024 Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) laureates, sponsored by the Azrieli Foundation. The biennial Azrieli Music Prizes aim to discover, elevate and amplify artistic voices that exhibit excellence.
Get to know the 2024 AMP Laureates and learn about the creative process behind their prize-winning works. Respected musicologist and long-time Radio-Canada personality Sylvia L’Écuyer CM.
Established in 2014 by the Azrieli Foundation, the Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) offer opportunities for the discovery, creation, performance and celebration of excellence in music composition.
The AMP juries are comprised of a pool of leading experts assembled from the fields of music creation, culture, presentation and performance.
The four prize packages—valued at $200,000 CAD per laureate—make AMP the top competition for music composition in Canada and one of the largest in the world.
Applications will open for the 2026 Azrieli Music Prizes on Friday, February 7, 2025.
The 2026 Call for Proposals will be for the following instrumentation: Orchestra & Choir, with optional soloists (maximum of 4).
For your reference purposes, please find the guidelines for the 2024 Prizes below. Please check back in January for updated 2026 Azrieli Music Prize guidelines.
For questions, please contact music@azrielifoundation.org.