The Azrieli
Music Prizes
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 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.
Scores, proposals and supporting documents for the prizes are accepted from nominators and individual composers of all faiths, ages, backgrounds, gender identities and affiliations. The winning submissions for the first two prizes are selected by the AMP Jury for Jewish Music. The Canadian Commission is selected by the AMP Jury for Canadian Music. Both juries are comprised of a pool of leading experts assembled from the fields of music creation, culture, presentation and performance.
All three winning composers are expected to attend the rehearsals, performances and recording of their prize-winning works, and will be publicly honoured at the AMP Gala Concert, which will take place in Montreal every two years.
The Azrieli Music Prizes
The Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music
Open to the international music community, works can be nominated by individuals and institutions from all nationalities, faiths, backgrounds and affiliations and submitted to the AMP Jury for Jewish Music through the open call for scores. 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.
Laureates: Wlad Marhulets (2016), Avner Dorman (2018), Yitzhak Yedid (2020), Aharon Harlap (2022)
The Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music
The Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music is open to composers worldwide with the aim of encouraging creative and critical engagement with the question ‘What is Jewish Music?’
Laureates: Brian Current (2016), Kelly-Marie Murphy (2018), Yotam Haber (2020), Iman Habibi (2022)
The Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music
The Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music is open to all composers of Candian citizenship or permanent residency with the aim of encouraging creative and critical engagement with the complexities of composing Canadian concert music.
Laureates: Keiko Devaux (2020), Rita Ueda (2022)
The AMP Community
The Azrieli Music Prizes have been offered biennially since 2014.
For its first two editions in 2016 and 2018, AMP focused on the discovery and creation of orchestral music that celebrated excellence in new Jewish music.
In an effort to open AMP to a larger circle of composers, the Azrieli Foundation has expanded its three music prizes to call for a variety of instrumentation categories. These include:
- 2022: Orchestral Music – Symphony orchestra plus up to two (2) soloists
- 2024: Choral Music – A cappella choir plus up to four additional instruments and/or vocal soloist(s)
- 2026: Oratorio or Opera-in-Concert – Symphony orchestra, choir and up to four (4) vocal soloists in either an oratorio or one-act opera-in-concert format.
In establishing this cycle, the Azrieli Foundation hopes to give composers longer lead times by which to plan their AMP submissions while also allowing the prize program to enrich both the Canadian and Jewish music repertoires.
News
The Azrieli Foundation Announces 2022 Azrieli Music Prize Laureates
November 4, 2021
The Azrieli Foundation proudly announces the three laureates of their 2022 Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) – the Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music to Iman Habibi, the Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music to Aharon Harlap and the second edition of the Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music to Rita Ueda. Established in 2014, the biennial Azrieli Music Prizes advance the Azrieli Foundation’s commitment to discovering, elevating and amplifying artistic voices that exhibit excellence and embodies its belief in music as a vital human endeavour that allows us to express our creativity; to expand our worldview; and to foster positive cultural exchanges.
World premiere recordings by the winners of the 2020 Azrieli Music Prizes
September 28, 2021
On October 1, The Azrieli Foundation and Analekta release New Jewish Music, Vol. 3 – Azrieli Music Prizes, featuring the world premiere recordings of works by the 2020 Azrieli Music Prize (AMP) laureates.
Azrieli Foundation conducts a new approach to launching its prize-winning composers
November 20, 2020
The prize-winning compositions are traditionally premiered at a gala concert in Montreal, only, thanks to COVID-19, this year’s best-laid plans “gang aft a-gley,” as the poet Robert Burns would have said.
And so the Azrieli Music Prizes have, like so many musical undertakings, adapted to pandemic conditions. Rather than cancel the scheduled gala event outright, organizers decided first to scale it down, moving the locale from the University of Montreal’s closed Salle Claude-Champagne to the more intimate Salle Bourgie of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
For more information about the Azrieli Music Prizes please contact:
Phone: 1-(416)-322-5928 ext. 326
Azrieli Music Prizes
WE HAVE MOVED TO:
2 St. Clair Avenue West, Suite 900
Toronto, Ontario M4V 1L5
Our phone and fax numbers have not changed.
