Ottawa, August 30, 2011 – The Canada Council for the Arts announced today that composer Cassandra Miller is the winner of the 2011 Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music for Bel Canto, a song inspired by a lazy afternoon lunch with friends in the Greek mountains. The work was created for a mezzo-soprano and two simultaneous ensembles. It premiered in May, 2010 at the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur in Montreal by Ensemble Kore.
Of Bel Canto Ms. Miller said, “A very long afternoon moment reminded me that life is warm and slow and completely full of strange potential. The piece is simply a dedication to that idea, and to the friend who made that (and many other moments) possible for me. The music exists to create a space in which the listener can make connections, see details, stop listening and start again, can come and go with the various elements of the sound.”
Listen to the piece or download images of Ms. Miller.
Cassandra Miller’s work combines a love of warmth with a love for the absurd and explores the complexity of emotion that can result from simplicity. She explores ideas of virtuosity and excess, baroque through to modern. Her music also includes new notation systems that stimulate personal interpretation and connection between performers.
Ms. Miller holds a master’s of music from the Royal Conservatory of the Hague (the Netherlands), and a bachelor’s of music from the University of Victoria. Her compositions have been performed by the Janacek Philharmonic (Czech Republic), both the Victoria and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras and numerous chamber ensembles in Europe and Canada. New works have been commissioned by the Quatuor Bozzini (Montreal), Philip Thomas (UK), Zinc & Copper Works (Berlin), Ensemble Kore (Montreal), Continuum Contemporary Music (Toronto), Vancouver New Music, and Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal (the Generation project).
Originally from Victoria, Ms. Miller currently lives in Montreal, where she is the artistic and general director of Innovations en concert, an organization which presents concert series, focusing on underground/fringe elements of Montreal contemporary music/sound art, and encouraging a new canon of creative music in Quebec.
Established by the Right Honourable Jules Léger, former Governor General of Canada, the $7,500 prize is designed to encourage the creation of new Canadian chamber music and to foster its performance by Canadian chamber groups.
This annual prize is a three-way partnership between the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canadian Music Centre and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio-Canada.
The members of the peer assessment committee for the Jules Léger Prize were composers Jennifer Butler (Vancouver), Chris Paul Harman (Montreal) and Eldritch Priest (Ottawa). The committee was a “blind jury” which evaluated the works without knowing the names of the composers.
The jury made a special mention of two other works submitted for the Jules Léger Prize: Hadavar by Dániel Péter Biró, and Striped Noise by Alec Hall.
In addition to its principal role of promoting and fostering the arts, the Canada Council for the Arts administers and awards many prizes and fellowships in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural and health sciences, engineering, and arts management. These prizes and fellowships recognize the achievements of outstanding Canadian artists, scholars, and administrators. The Canada Council is committed to raising public awareness and celebrating these exceptional people and organizations on both a national and an international level.
Heather McAfee
Public Relations Officer
1-800-263-5588 or
613-566-4414, ext. 4166
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Mireille Allaire
Public Relations Officer
1-800-263-5588 or
613-566-4414, ext. 4523
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