Yannick’s mentor is honoured by Canada’s biggest music prize
mainWhen Yannick Nézet-Séguin was just 23, a retired national politician called Jean-Pierre Goyer fired the conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal and named the young man his successor.
photo: scena.org
Goyer, who died in 2011, had been Solicitor General in Pierre Trudeau’s government, driving through an agenda of prison reform. He later chaired the arts council of Montreal and was president of its second orchestra when Yannick came to attention.
Now the city has founded a $125,000 Prix Goyer in his name ‘for Extreme Emerging Artist.’
The first winner is a pianist, Philip Chiu.
press release:
Montréal pianist Philip Chiu, heralded internationally for the brilliance of his playing and his infectious personality, is the winner of the $125,000 Prix Goyer 2015-2016 for Extreme Emerging Artist. Prix Goyer is the biggest prize in Canada and one of the largest in the world for an artist emerging in classical music.
The award is founded to honour Jean-Pierre Goyer and his contributions to music, arts and culture in Montréal, Québec and Canada. The prize was presented to Philip on Saturday at the Ensemble Caprice concert in Bourgie Hall, Montréal Museum of Fine Arts.
No. Philip Chiu was honoured by Canada’s music prize. How about you honor the winner by putting his picture instead of YNS’s.
The city has honoured Goyer by creating the prize. He was a supporter of Yannick when he was starting out (suggesting a pretty good eye for talent). The story is about them, and the news is of the young but as yet hardly known person who has been become the first recipient of this award. Seems appropriate presentation to me. Given its size, if the awarding panel is any good, I daresay we will be seeing many pictures of Philip Chiu in the future. But would you have read a story headed “Philip Chiu wins Prix Goyer”? Having heard of neither? This story explains the genesis of what promises to be a most attractive prize.