Homburger and Phillips Honoured with Distinguished Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards

By Penny Johnson, Contributing Author

At Ottawa’s Rideau Hall on April 30, 2010, Their Excellencies the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, and Mr. Jean-Daniel Lafond, presented the prestigious Governor General’s Performing Arts Award (GGPAA) for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. 

This year, two of the recipients, Walter Homburger (classical music) and Robin Phillips (theatre), had connections to Glenn Gould.  Other recipients included Bryan Adams (popular music), Françoise Faucher (theatre), Edouard Lock (dance) and Buffy Sainte-Marie (popular music).  An additional two awards were presented, including The Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts (Mohammed and Yulanda Faris, 2010 recipients) and The National Arts Centre Award (Yannick Nézet-Séguin, 2010 recipient).

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Memories of Kiwanis 1944: An Interview with Stephen Endicott

By Contributing Author, Penny Johnson

Nearly every Canadian has heard of the Kiwanis Music Festival, a music and speech arts competition held yearly in most urban communities across the country.  As the celebrated Gould scholar, Kevin Bazzana explains in his book, Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould, Kiwanis Music Festivals “had been fixtures on the English-Canadian music scene from the beginning of the twentieth century, and many people perceived them as a healthy force for cultural betterment.”  

Having performed in eight years worth of Kiwanis Music Festivals myself, while growing up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, I have vivid memories of the volunteer ‘Kiwanians’ as they are commonly known, serving their community and youth at large, with openness and pride.  While Glenn Gould never participated in any competitions as an adult – throughout his career he made many claims to the negative effects of competition – he did perform in the first three Toronto Kiwanis Music Festivals of 1944, 1945, and 1946 respectively.

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Eighth Glenn Gould Prize Presenting Sponsor Snags Top Business for the Arts Award

With thanks to the visionary support of Power Corporation of Canada, The Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela stole more than 20 000 Canadian hearts last year when they came to Toronto to celebrate their founding father, Dr. José Antonio Abreu, Eighth Glenn Gould Prize winner. The inspiring week of events demonstrated how music transforms lives. 

TORONTO – The Glenn Gould Foundation congratulates Power Corporation of Canada, Great-West Life, London Life and Canada Life; Investors Group and Mackenzie Investments for winning Best Entrepreneurial Partnership in this year’s The Globe and Mail Business for the Arts Awards as announced today by Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail.  The Entrepreneurial Partnership Award recognizes a business that has sparked on a creative idea and made it happen with an entrepreneurial approach to partnering with the arts on a project or goal, which had not been tried before.

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