Awards

• • Gold Award: 1 for each Category
  • Silver Award: 2 for each Category
  • Bronze Award: 3 for each Category
  • Award for Excellence: Selected Categories in each Age Group
  • Special Mention Awards: At the discretion of the Judges
  • Best Creative Award: At the discretion of the Judges
  • Newcomer’s New Works: At the discretion of the Judges
  • Organization Excellency: Given to Institutions, Schools and Teachers, that have recommended 30 Artworks or more
  • The Tutor Award: Awarded to all instructors whose pupils have won Gold, Silver and Bronze.

 

Jury

 

Music：SIMON ALDRICH

Called “a spectacular player” by The Los Angeles Times, holder of a doctorate and two masters degrees from Yale University and nominated for an Opus Award as “Discovery of the Year,” Simon Aldrich is currently solo clarinet of Orchestre Métropolitain, as well as a member of Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. He has also been solo clarinet of the Chicago Classical Symphony and the Colorado Philharmonic. His teachers have included David Shifrin, Joaquin Valdepeñas, Robert Marcellus and Emilio Iacurto, and he has attended Northwestern University and McGill University. He has performed as soloist with the Toronto Symphony, Victoria Symphony, Orchestra London, Chicago Classical Symphony, Chicago North Shore Chamber Symphony, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, l’Orchestre Métropolitain and the Fanshawe Orchestra. With Nouvel Ensemble Moderne Simon has performed across Canada, the United States, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Australia and Japan. His recording of Elliott Carter’s Clarinet Concerto won an Opus Award for Best Contemporary Recording in 2002. He is heard regularly on CBC radio and has recorded for the CD labels Atma, SNE, Analekta, CBC, UMMUS, Montaigne Auvidis, Amberola and Sächsische Tonträger. Simon teaches at McGill University, is artistic director of The Jeffery Summer Concerts in London (Ontario), and has had articles on the composer Johann Melchior Molter published in the American journals Continuo and The Clarinet.

Dance：

JANNA CHALKEVITCH

 

RICHARD SUGARMAN

Richard Sugarman was born in Ottawa, Canada. He has been living and teaching in Toronto. Richard has been awarded 2 Canada Council of the Arts awards from the Canadian Government. In 1971 Richard was awarded a short term grant as a dancer to travel to New York to further his training as a professional dancer. In 1978 Richard received his second award as a teacher to return to New York City and enhance his teaching skills by attending classes with the various professional teachers in New York City. He has spent 8 years touring as a classical and modern ballet dancer. Richard has taught professional level ballet classes for various companies such as the National Ballet of Canada, and the Israel Ballet Company, Ballet of Toronto, Northern Lights Dance Company. Richard has taught in the United States, Canada, Israel, China, France and Germany. Richard was head of the ballet program at Sheridan College in Toronto where he choreographed Fiddler On the Roof for the musical theatre program. Richard was hired as a guest teacher at York University (Toronto), SHERIDAN College (Toronto), Clinton College (New York), Austin University (Texas/USA), National Ballet of Canada (Toronto), and George Brown College (Toronto). Richard has trained with some of the most famous international teachers, such as; Alexandra Danilova,Valentina Pereyeslava,William Martin Viscount,Maggie Black,Terrie Westmoreland,Benjamin Harkavy,Alvin Ailey. Richard has danced in many well-known ballets such as: Serenade (George Ballanchine) Still Point (Tod Bollinger) The Nutcracker, to name a few. Richard has danced with several international ballerinas such as: Mette Honigan from the Royal Danish Ballet, and Patricia Neary from New York City Ballet. Richard has been a guest choreographer for the National Ballet of Canada’s workshop productions. Richard has choreographed dances in Canada and Israel and the United States.

Vocal：Troy Bynoe

Troy’s music production/engineering experience and music industry knowledge is a culmination of two decades of passion driven hard work and dedication towards his craft and associations; resulting in 4 Juno Awards, 14 Juno Award Nominations, 1 Urban Music Award, 5 Urban Music Award Nominations, Gemini Awards, Crystal Awards and Gold and Platinum Awards. Troy’s work as an engineer, mixer, producer and composer has proven to be an integral part of the Toronto, Canada Urban music movement during its pivotal era between the early 1990’s and 2000’s that formed the fabric of a strong and influential landscape of artists that now have a popular impact in the global market. Artists like Drake, Nelly Furtado, K-os, Kardinal Offishall and Justin Bieber are just a few examples of Canadian artists who were molded from the hotbed of Toronto talent. Troy has worked with the biggest record labels – EMI, Sony, BMG, Warner and Universal and has achieved beyond their expectations in creating award winning music projects such as the 2005 Juno Award winning recording Joyful Rebellion (Virgin) for K-os and for which Troy received a Platinum record for sales in excess of 100,000 units in Canada. The album reached No. 7 on the Billboard Top Canadian 100 chart. Troy has been at the helm of a slew of production and engineering projects in the fields of Pop, R&B and Hip Hop for many distinguishable artists such as Kardinal Offishall, Esthero, Infinite, Dubmatique, Sky, Jelleestone, Doc McKinney, Smash Mouth, Divine Brown, Dream Warriors, Daniel Lanois (U2), Alex Greggs (Michael Jackson, ‘N Sync), Stephan Moccio (Miley Cyrus, Celine Dion), George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Untitled, Bass is Base, Brassmunk, Ivana Santilli and many more.

Speech：David Edwards

Mr. Edwards started his professional career in Waterloo after he graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Queen’s University. He graduated with degrees of Arts and Sciences specializing in Computer Science. He was chairman of the Artists Association in Kungsängen, Sweden for 10 years since 1984. He painted and taught extensively in water color, oil and acrylic, in the discipline of landscape, portrait and abstract. He returned to Canada in 1994. Since then, he had numerous art exhibitions all around Toronto, too many to list them here, also, he was a prized speaker in multiple conferences and published books and poetry works.  

Music：Judith Peleg

Born in Hungary Judith Kenedi Peleg was the youngest student ever to be accepted to the Franz Liszt Academy of Music when, at age 10, she entered that World Renowned institution to become the student of Paul Kadosa. Immediately upon arrival in Canada at age 18, she created a sensation by winning first prize in the Kiwanis Festival with a performance described by British adjudicator Joseph Cooper as “an experience of a lifetime.” Ms. Kenedi became the student of Anton Kuerti at the University of Toronto where she received both her Artist Diploma and Bachelor of Music degrees. Her studies continued at the Rubin Academy of Music, Tel-Aviv, under Mindru Katz and Gyorgy Sebok at Indiana University in Bloomington, where she earned a Masters degree cum laude. After winning the North-West Young Artists competition in Seattle, Washington, she was chosen to be one of two soloists to participate in The Winter Cycle of the Banff Center for the Arts, which was followed by tours of the western provinces. Ms. Kenedi Peleg currently resides in Toronto with her husband the violinist, Joseph Peleg, and their two children. She has given numerous recitals and 、、 concerts to great acclaim and has recorded for the CBC both as a soloist and chamber musician with such artists as Joseph Peleg, Daniel Domb, and the Amati String Quartet.

Music：Joseph Peleg

Joseph Peleg, a native of Hungary, spent his youth in Israel. He came to Canada in 1968 to study with Lorand Fenyves, earning his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Toronto. He subsequently received his Masters of Music degree from Indiana University while working with Josef Gingold. Mr. Peleg also worked with the eminent virtuosi, Joseph Szigeti and Nathan Milstein in Europe. His intense interest and passion for chamber music as well as solo performance has involved him in numerous engagements and recordings in Canada, the United States, Israel, and throughout Europe, including, among others, Belgian Radio, Radio Bremen, Dublin, Finnish Broadcasting, Norwegian and Swedish Radio. He is a former member of the Purcell String Quartet, the Galliard Ensemble, the Amati String Quartet, and currently the concert master of the Oakville Symphony Orchestra. Joseph has been teaching and coaching violin for over 40 years and is well known and respected by his students and peers.

Children’s Literature：Kui Zhu

Zhu Kui, a great fairy tale master, created the classic fairy tales “Mr. York Series”, “Mr. Panda Wen Ren Series”, “Amazing Adventures Series”, “Amazing Imagination Series”, and Picture Books “Linda Series”. Mr. Cao Wenxuan, the winner of the International Andersen Award, said: “In Chinese literature, no fairy tale is written for children like Mr. Zhu Kui’s. Never Forgotten!

Music Instrument: Emerald Sun

Emerald began playing the clarinet at age 14 along with saxophone and oboe as she took a keen interest in woodwind instruments on top of her piano studies.  After much musical exploration, Emerald decided to focus on the clarinet to pursue an orchestral career and went on to study under the tutelage of Alain Desgagné at McGill University in Montreal where she obtained her Bachelor’s of Music. Later on, she moved across the ocean to Europe, where she studied with Benjamin Dieltjens and Chen Halevi and completed her Master’s of Music at Trossingen Music University in Germany. Emerald has an extensive performance career. As a soloist, she debuted with the Toronto Sinfonietta as the winner of the concerto competition in 2013 and was a featured soloist at the Schloss Pommersfelden Festival in Germany in 2016. She is also beyond passionate about chamber music and has performed in countless recitals and concert tours as well as collaborated with distinguished artists such as Márta Gulyás and Jürgen Weber. Lastly, Emerald is a dedicated orchestral musician and has performed with orchestras in many renowned concert halls across North America, Europe and Asia such as Carnegie Hall, National Arts Centre of Ottawa, Maison Symphonique, Roy Thomson Hall, Koningin Elisabethzaal, Liederhalle Stuttgart and Shanghai Music Hall. Currently Emerald is enjoying a freelance career in Belgium and looking forward to further her orchestral career in Asia.