AZRIELI MUSIC PRIZE

About

Created in 2014 by Sharon Azrieli CQ for the Azrieli Foundation, the Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) offer opportunities for the discovery, creation, performance, and celebration of excellence in music composition. It offers the largest prize package of its kind in Canada, making it one of the most substantial composition competitions in the world.

The Azrieli Music Prizes consist of one discovery prize and three commissions, awarded to the composers whose submissions display the utmost artistry, technical mastery, and professional expertise in response to the Prize theme.

The Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music invites Canadian composers to propose new musical works that embrace the complexities of composing in Canada today.

The Azrieli Commission for International Music invites composers worldwide to deeply engage in a creative interplay of cultures that have meaningful connections to their lived experience.

The Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music invites composers to creatively and critically engage with the question, “What is Jewish music?”

The Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music is awarded to a composer who has written the best new undiscovered work that engages with the question, "What is Jewish music?" Works may be nominated by individuals or institutions, including composer self-nomination. Eligible works may have been premiered within 75 years of the award date but must not have a significant performance history or be commercially recorded.

Open to the international music community, AMP accepts nominations for works from individuals and institutions of all ages, genders, nationalities, faiths and backgrounds.

PAST AZRIELI MUSIC PRIZE WINNERS
Canadian composers Jordan Nobles (2024), Rita Ueda (2022), Keiko Devaux (2020), Kelly-Marie Murphy (2018) and Brian Current (2016); Israeli composer Yair Klartag (2024); Israeli-Georgian composer Josef Bardanashvili (2024); Mexican American composer Juan Trigos (2024); Iranian-Canadian composer Iman Habibi (2022); Israeli-Canadian composer Aharon Harlap (2022); Israeli-Australian composer Yitzhak Yedid (2020); Dutch-born American composer Yotam Haber (2020); Israeli-American composer Avner Dorman (2018) and US-based Polish composer Wlad Marhulets (2016).

“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.”

— Sharon Azrieli

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.