Instrument Presentation to Dr. José Antonio Abreu

Yamaha Canada Music and The Glenn Gould Foundation fund $150,000 worth of instruments for at-risk youth as part of Celebration of Music Week

By Penny Johnson, GGF Contributing Author

A preeminent international arts award which The Toronto Star recently referred to as “the Nobel Prize of the Arts,” The Glenn Gould Prize is awarded every three years by The Glenn Gould Foundation to an individual who has made significant and lasting contributions in the field of music and communication.  Laureates of the prestigious award receive $50,000 and a sculpture of Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould, by artist, Ruth Abernethy. 

In addition, laureates are invited to select a winner of the Glenn Gould City of Toronto Protégé Prize worth $15,000.  A portrait of each laureate is added to a permanent collection of photographs, on display in the lower lobby of the Glenn Gould Studio at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto.

In October of 2009, Dr. José Antonio Abreu – founder of the Venezuelan musical miracle known around the world as El Sistema  – became the Eighth Laureate of The Glenn Gould Prize, naming El Sistema graduate and conducting sensation, Gustavo Dudamel (currently music director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic) as the recipient of the Protégé Prize.  Abreu joins an impressive list of past laureates, which include André Previn (2005), Pierre Boulez (2002), Yo-Yo Ma (1999), Toru Takemitsu (1996), Oscar Peterson (1993), Yehudi Menuhin (1990) and R. Murray Schafer (1987). 

The selection of Abreu was made by an international jury, which consisted of such distinguished members as Ben Heppner (Canada), Hélène Mercier (Canada/France), the late Anthony Minghella (UK), Janice Price (Canada), Peter Schickele (USA), and jury chairman, Paul Hoffert (Canada/USA).

Following the announcement that he would receive $50,000, Abreu requested for the money to be translated into the equivalent value of musical instruments for use by the students of El Sistema, a system of music education which has transformed the lives of over one million at-risk children since its inception over thirty years ago.  Thanks to the generosity of Yamaha Canada Music Ltd., Abreu received triple the amount of instruments, and in a formal presentation ceremony held on October 27 as part of the Celebration of Music Week, Glenn Gould Foundation President Glenn Morley praised Yamaha for “stepping up to the plate and turning the $50,000 into $150,000 worth of instruments.” (To see pictures, view our gallery)

Steve Butterworth, AGM of the Musical Instruments Division at Yamaha Canada Music Ltd., added that the gift included “approximately 140 of our student model instruments, and also 20 finer instruments that will meet the needs of students that are advancing into orchestras, and that will be able to appreciate greater playability and expression.”  Abreu expressed his appreciation with the following:  “A child that has an instrument, that plays an instrument, is no longer poor.  More so, the culture for the poor should never be a poor culture.”