About
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.
Two prizes recognize excellence in new Jewish music:
The Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music is awarded to a composer who has written the best new major work of Jewish music. Eligible works may have been premiered within ten 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 and musical excellence.
Starting with the 2020 edition, AMP has added a third prize – the Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music. This prize is offered to a Canadian composer to create a new musical work that creatively and critically engages with the challenges of composing concert music in Canada today.
Scores, proposals and supporting documents for the prizes are accepted from nominators and individual composers of all faiths, ages, backgrounds 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 comprise a pool of leading experts assembled from the fields of music creation, culture, presentation and performance.
2020 AZRIELI MUSIC PRIZE WINNERS
Keiko Devaux, 2020 Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music Winner
Keiko Devaux will write a new work for 14 musicians that draws on her combined history as a Japanese-French-Canadian. Devaux is a Montreal-based composer who writes for ensembles, dance and film. Her compositions focus on musical ‘translations’ of experience through the interpretation of extra-musical form and patterns. She holds a Master’s in Instrumental Composition from the University of Montréal and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Composition under the direction of Ana Sokolović and Pierre Michaud. She has been awarded several distinctions, including the 2019 Jan V. Matejcek Award from the SOCAN Foundation and the audience and jury prizes of the 2017 Accès Arkea Competition. She was the 2016-18 composer in residence with Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne.
Yotam Haber, 2020 Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music Winner
Yotam Haber has been awarded to write a new song cycle for voice and ensemble – Estro Poetico Armonico III – continuing his ongoing investigation into the music of the Jewish community of Rome, using text by modern Israeli poets sung by mezzo soprano in conjunction with, or in opposition to, traditional cantillation and liturgical texts. Haber was born in Holland and grew up in Israel, Nigeria, and Milwaukee. He is the recipient of major and prestigious prizes, residencies, and commissions, and is widely performed by the leading new music groups around the world. Haber is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of New Orleans and Artistic Director Emeritus of MATA, the non-profit organization founded by Philip Glass that has, since 1996, been dedicated to commissioning and presenting new works by young composers from around the world.
Yitzhak Yedid, 2020 Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music Winner
Multi award-winning Israeli-born Australian composer Yitzhak Yedid won the 2020 prize for his Kiddushim Ve’ Killulim (Blessings and Curses). This piece, written for thirteen players, challenges musical conventions by synthesizing ancient Jewish musical sources with contemporary Western art music. Yedid melds the music of his ancestral Syrian and Iraqi Jewish background with Western avant-garde and free jazz techniques. Combining this with his experience as an improvising concert pianist allows him to create a highly expressive, eclectic and alluring new Jewish music. Yedid studied piano at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, continued his schooling at the New England Conservatory and earned a Ph.D. from Monash University in Melbourne. He currently lectures in composition and piano at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in Brisbane.
PAST AZRIELI MUSIC PRIZE WINNERS
Israeli-American composer Avner Dorman (2018), Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy (2018), Canadian composer Brian Current (2016), and US-based Polish composer Wlad Marhulets (2016).
L to R: Keiko Devaux, Boris Brott, Sharon Azrieli, and Yotam Haber
“When I conceived of these Prizes for the Azrieli Foundation, it was with a firm belief – shared deeply with my late father, David Azrieli, z”l – that music plays a positive role in shaping cultural identity and educating present and future generations.”
One of the largest philanthropic foundations in Canada and in Israel, the Azrieli Foundation fulfills the philanthropic legacy of David J. Azrieli and has been funding institutions as well as operating programs since 1989. Driven by a strong belief in the powerful role and responsibility of philanthropy, the foundation empowers and supports a broad range of organizations in its eight priority funding areas: Music & the Arts, Education, Fellowships, Community, Holocaust Education & Legacy, Science, Research & Healthcare, Neurodevelopment, Architecture, Design & Engineering. Its activities reach a diversity of people, places and needs.
Through the Azrieli Music Initiatives (AMI), the Foundation is committed to discovering, elevating and amplifying artistic voices, granting broad access to meaningful musical experiences that both exhibit artistic excellence and advance a shared pursuit of learning and wellness. AMI creates meaningful and practical realizations of the Foundation’s mission to improve the lives of present and future generations.
NEWS
Recordings
VIDEOS
