Toronto - The Azrieli Music Prizes

AMP offers three prizes every two years.

1) The Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music is awarded to a composer who has written the best new undiscovered work of Jewish music. Eligible works may have been premiered within seventy-five (75) years of the award date, but must not have a significant performance history, and must not have been commercially recorded.

2) The Azrieli Commission for Jewish Music is awarded to encourage composers to creatively and critically engage with the question “What is Jewish music?” This prize is given to the composer who proposes a response to this question in the shape of a musical work that displays the utmost creativity, artistry, technical mastery and professional expertise.

3) The Azrieli Commission for Canadian Music is offered to a Canadian composer to create a new musical work that creatively and critically engages with the complexities of composing concert music in Canada today. The prize is given to the composer who proposes a response to this challenge that displays the utmost creativity, artistry, technical mastery and professional expertise.

Scores, proposals and supporting documents for the prizes are accepted from nominators and individual composers of all faiths, ages, backgrounds, gender identities and affiliations. The winning submissions for the first two prizes are selected by the AMP Jury for Jewish Music. The Canadian Commission is selected by the AMP Jury for Canadian Music. Both juries are comprised of a pool of leading experts assembled from the fields of music creation, culture, presentation and performance.

All AMP Laureates receive a prize package valued at over $200,000 CAD, including a cash award of $50,000 CAD; a world-premiere performance of their prize-winning work at the AMP Gala Concert in Montréal, where they are publicly honoured; two subsequent international performances; and a professional recording of their prize-winning work released on a commercial label. Altogether, this currently makes AMP the top competition for music composition in Canada and one of the largest in the world.

AMP Laureates include Canadian composer Keiko Devaux (2020), Dutch-born American composer Yotam Haber (2020), Israeli-born Australian composer Yitzhak Yedid (2020), Israeli-American composer Avner Dorman (2018), Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy (2018), Canadian composer Brian Current (2016) and US-based Polish composer Wlad Marhulets (2016).