The 15th gala of the Prix Opus was held yesterday afternoon in the very beautiful Salle Bourgie of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. No less than 28 awards were given out during this celebration of concert music, which coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Conseil québécois de la musique.

Several musical performances were included throughout the gala. The audience heard the Zaldivar Trio, the Bozzini Quartet in an excerpt from an Ana Sokolovic work to be premiered in October, composer Jean-François Laporte in Rituel, an intriguing and rather poetic work for flying can, the Fanfarniente, harpist Valérie Milot in two movements from a piece by Glenn Buhr, as well as a baroque group with Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière, Olivier Brault, and actors Jean-François Gagnon and Carl Béchard.

A very moving homage was rendered to Yuli Turovsky, who left I Musici’s musical direction last May for health reasons.  From the long list of winners, let’s mention the program The Art of François Couperin, a Clavecin en concert production, led by Luc Beauséjour, (“Concert of the year – medieval, Renaissance, baroque repertoires”), On n’est jamais trop classique, a youth program from the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (“Young audience production”) and pianist Louise Bessette, who celebrates in 2012 her first 30 years of career, nominated twice in the category “Disc of the year – modern, contemporary repertoires” who went home with the precious prize for her Serge Arcuri project.

Cloé Palacio-Quintin becomes “composer of the year” and  baroque flutist Vincent Lauzer (who has worked with Matthias Maute and Sophie Larivière of Ensemble Caprice) “upcoming artist”. Julie Boulianne’s work on the international stage was as well saluted.

Congratulations to all!

In a little less than an hour, His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, will preside over an Order of Canada investiture ceremony at Rideau Hall and will bestow the honour on 28 Members, 10 Officers and one Companion.

Alain Lefèvre will then become Officer of the Order of Canada, in recognition of his talent, his constant will to champion Canadian music and his gifts as a communicator.

Let’s recall that the Order of Canada was created in 1967 to recognize “a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.” Since its creation, more than 5 000 people from all sectors of society have been invested into the Order. This year, other recipiendaries from the cultural scene includesinger Mary Lou Fallis, radio host Monique Giroux, actor Marie Gignac, First Nation artist Shirley Bear and stage director Robert Lepage.

Effervescence was in the air last night at the Théâtre St-Denis. Dresses were classy, smiles genuine. A few seconds before the recording of the gala started, you could hear quite a few “Congratulations for being nominated” all over the place. The event, hosted by Catherine Pogonat, flew by in a flash and at no point did we get the impression the evening was neverending. Presentations were to the point, often quite amusing, thank yous were kept to decent lenghts.

Alain Lefèvre won an 8th Félix for the album Mathieu: Trio & Quintet. Chausson: Concert, recorded with his brother David and the Alcan Quartet. When he stepped on stage to accept his award, he mentioned that this recording was a “fermata”, after 25 years spent spreading the news about the “Canadian Mozart,” André Mathieu. He also mentioned it was essential to remember our artists from the past, that it was a gesture of cultural patriotism. He also spoke of the necessity to champion not only Mozart or Wagner, but composers from our country as well.

Congratulations Alain for this well-deserved award and kudos to all the nominees in the three classical music related categories awarded at this gala.

You can access the list of awards given last night here…

It is tonight that the ADISQ (Association québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo), in its 33rd year of existence, will announce the names of the winners at « l’autre gala » (a rather heteroclit evening which features rap, classical, jazz, but also humour and traditional music). It is hosted by Catherine Pogonat nad held at Théâtre Saint-Denis in Montreal for the first time. You can follow the event on MusiquePlus, Musimax starting and on the Web starting at 8 p.m.

Let’s recall that Analekta has received 7 ADISQ nominations, among them “Producer of the Year”, category in which the label won a Felix in 2010. The albums nominated are:

John Adams : Portrait d’Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà

Salsa baroque by Ensemble Caprice

Mathieu : Trio and Quintet, Chausson : Concert by brothers Alain and David Lefèvre

V,  by harpist Valérie Milot

Noël by Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà

Gods, Heroes and Men by Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Kent Nagano